Aftermath
by bustghoster
Summary: Post season 1. The acid fog has cleared, and the 100 are scattered. Murphy and Clarke are captured by grounders. Anya is back. Also features Bellamy, Raven, Lexa, Lincoln, Octavia, grounders and Mount Weather Warning; character death. Murphy/Raven Clarke/Bellamy.
1. Chapter 1

Aftermath

_The 100 story, post season 1. Will include some elements of the show._

_It´s my very first, be gentle._

**Prologue**

He was fucked,

The pain of the knife stabbing his thigh shuttered through Murphys brain. He saw stars, gave out a scream and instantly vomited. His head bobbed to the side, he grimaces, the pain excruciating. But he can´t move, his hands still tied behind the tree, so he just sits there breathing quickly giving out a whimper as he passes out.

**Chapter 1**

**A cave in the woods**

Clarke slowly came to inside the cave seeing Octavia looking worried above her.

Hi, Octavia smiles at her, Clarke is glad, even in her somewhat weakened state. They don´t normally get on...

"There you are. We need to get moving". She helps Clarke to stand up. Clarke takes her hand and shakes of the dizziness.

"What about the others? "

Octavia turns away "I don´t know, I lost Bellamy and the others in the fog"

"Thanks by the way" Clarke knew Octavia probably was the reason she was still alive.

"You´re welcome"

They pick up the little gear they have left - _they need to get water -_ and head out of the small cave into the bright morning light. The foliage looks so green after the dark cave Clarke almost looses her breath. Still sometimes she forgets how _colourful_ it was down here. Some nearby leaves are full of dew drops and she wets her face with the water from one of them.

Clarke would have been wary of the grounders but with last night's explosion – no massacre – she shuddered - she thought they would have to regroup for sure.

Octavia was unusually quiet.

"Something up? We should get some supplies at the drop ship before heading out."

"Worried about Bellamy. Hard some awful screams coming from south of the drop ship last night, I´m afraid that could have been him"

She looked desperate. Red around her eyes and the drawn face, she had hardened since Lincoln disappeared. She didn´t need this.

"Let´s hurry", Clarke whispers.

They reach the drop ship in less than two hours. All the charred bodies made it look exactly like what it was; a warzone. The smell was overwhelming and both women took a cloth to cover their mouths.

"OK, you go get the stuff we need, and see if there area any guns left, I´ll go check the back for Bellamy or anyone else."

Octavia headed out feeling uneasy, she had not been imagining those screams.

After searching frantically a few minutes she heard a moan from the left and behind a small ledge was a tree with the back of a man tied to it. She ran and saw someone caked in blood and she instantly recognised him.

Murphy.

Her heart drops that it isn't Bellamy but she can help feel a little sorry for the boy in front of her. No matter what he did he didn´t deserve this. The asshole that he was. Octavia was livid about the thing that had gone down. Well she did almost see him hang, she could understand the sentiment. But still. He tried to kill HER brother.

She crouches down and cups his bloodsoaked face in her hands. "Murphy, wake up", she says quietly.

No response.

She cuts his bonds and he falls over and she barely catches him. "Easy there", she involuntarily gets out. She´s in fucking healing mode or something because her own gentleness surprises her.

Suddenly she sees Clarke in the distance and waves frantically. Back to warrior mode. Clarke may think that the grounder danger has passed but Octavia knows better. But Murphy is deadly pale, well paler than usual, and Octavia sees the leg wound and decides to stop the still oozing blood with her fingers instead of getting up to wave again.

Clarke doesn't see her so she dares a shout. She has a feeling this is urgent. Now Clarke seems to have got it and making her way over.

Octavia takes Murphy from their awkward sitting position and lays him slowly down still while pressing the leg wound tight with two fingers.

Clarke is there a second later saying a surprised, "Murphy?"

Still no response from the injured party. Clarke flinches at the sight of him. He is covered in blood and bruises, His breathing is laboured and it is hard to tell where the real damage is. Then she sees Octavias fingers on his leg. Clark immediately goes to work.

"What happened?"

"I have no idea. Or, I suppose the grounders are a fair guess. He ran from the drop ship after hanging Bellamy –"

"WHAT". Clarke stops what she is doing and looks at Octavia

"Relax, Bellamy made it, same as this asshole. Now let´s just save his ass for now. "

After a second of deliberation Clarke continues to work on Murphy's leg, which is not looking good. He is also ghostly pale. "He´s lost too much blood." She takes a piece of ripped sweater, drops it in some moonshine that they brought and touches the wound. Murphy groans.

"MURPHY you awake"

He moans again, he is awake.

"Hey there sunshine" Octavia leans over him "Can you bite on this while Clarke works on your leg". He does as Octavia says without a word, and she knows he must be in real pain. Clarke finishes cleaning the the wound and some of the larger gashes - _he really is in bad shape_ \- and as she ties up the last makeshift bandage she sighs. "What now?"

She looks at Murphy who has passed out again." I will head out and look for the others, you look after him. I´ll help you move him into the drop ship."Octavia says.

And she did, Clarke still felt a bit dazed but she knew it was her who had stay behind. Octavia was the better warrior and she was on better terms with the grounders. And Clarke _was_ the healer, for lack of better word.

The drop ship was a mess. She could see the rope that was still half hanging over the beam, and there was blood everywhere. Blood! Whose blood? If Murphy had been hurt by the grounders then this wasn´this blood. Unless he was lying.

Murphy was in one of the Hammocks, sleeping or unconscious, she wasn´t sure. She went over to examine him. She was worried, he was too pale. She could tell he has a fever, but that would be expected. Hopefully he would wake up soon. She wanted answers. She had done all she could; now it was up to him.

**The woods**

Octavia stopped to get more water before anything else, grounder survival tacticts had started to manifest in her brain, and she liked it. The waterfall was extraordinary beautiful and she allowed herself to breathe for a second. Sixteen years in a box would have been more bearable if she knew the earth could be like this. The thought of Bellamy brought her back to reality, of the others missing and her leaving Clarke (and Murphy). She had started to feel a kinship with Clarke, and she had decided to go with it. Their animosity had more or less subsided, and she knew for one that Bellamy was happy with that. He had his eyes on Clarke, she wasn´t blind.

She got up and ran into the woods, towards where she saw Bellamy last. She hoped it wasn´t too late.

**The drop ship**

Clarke was getting impatient. She knew that she couldn´t expect Octavia back soon, but Murphy should have woken up by now. She changed his dressings a couple of times and wiped his face with a cool cloth. She wanted to leave, she didn´t want to sit here and look after the camp outlaw when her friends where in danger. It was excutiating.

"Murphy, Murphy, what should I do with you?" She sighed to her self.

"Some water would be good" his voice croaked" She jumped "Finally!" and gathered herself to quickly gave him a drink. "Drink as much as you can, she implored, "you´re dehydrated, makes your condition worse"

He drank a whole cup.

"My condition?"

"Well. I don´t exactly know what happened to you, but on top of you old battle wounds you now have a few new ones. I´m mostly worried about your leg. So What did happen to you?"

"Some grounder bastard stabbed me." Murphy seemed pissed. She could relate.

"well. It´s gonna take some time before that heals. How are you feeling otherwise"

"Lousy"

Anything else you can tell me?

"No" was his short answer. His eyes are closed.

Clarke checks Murphys brow, he isn´t as warm, hopefully that was it. He´s out of the woods. She laughs at her own expression. They are in the middle of the woods and he can´t walk for several days.

Peachy. She decides to have a little chat.

"So how come you came to be such a dick Murphy?"

Murphy opens his eyes and tiredly looks at Clarke. He sighs. "I´m sorry I strung up your boyfriend, OK"

She ignores the apology.

"What, you parents didn´t love you or something?"

"My parents loved me"

"So what happened. How does a boy who is loved by his parents become a psychopathic murderer? ¨

Murphy looks away but continues in a monotone voice.

"He gets the flu...and his dad steals medicine that it turns out wouldn't help anyway and he gets floated for it. His mom starts drinking pretty heavily after that. When he finds her dying in a pool of her own vomit she screams to him that his father´s death was his fault. He is 8 fucking years old"

Clarke can´t respond to that, something in her feels bad for pushing him. She decides to let it go. She gives him a small smile and says "boohoo". He looks back at her and snorts, but she can see him smile too.

* * *

Marcus Kane was moving slowly through the woods, leading his men in a military formation. He was exhilarated by the unfamiliar sounds, smells and sights but he didn´t want to celebrate just yet. Something was off, none of the other ships had made contact, and where were the kids!

They had decided to head for the drop ship. Mount Weather would have to wait.

Abby is desperate to see her daughter. She walks towards the back of the group thinking about Clarke and where she could be. And even more importantly, how she was.

There was a rustling up a head and some shouting and she saw Kane motion to the front of the group to check it out. As she stepped out into the clearing she saw a large man fall, half his head shot off by Kane. There were also four kids, two of them look injured, blood on their faces, she went up to the worst off, but he shrugged her off.

"Don´t worry about me, we have to find Clarke" he panted, not looking in good shape at all.

"Clarke" Abby couldn´t believe it. "Where is she. Clarke is my daughter" She demanded.

"We lost her in the fog." The injured boy sounded desperate.

Abby sighed. That didn´t sound so bad. But then the boy continued "It´s a type of acid fog that kills a person in seconds. We managed to find shelter but we lost Octavia, my sister and Clarke"

"Where was this?"

"A couple hours from the drop ship"

"Take me there"

Nobody hesitated. Bellamy and Finn both insisted they were fine and could move on. The whole group now followed the boys towards where Bellamy had last seen Octavia and Clarke.

"What are your names?"

"Bellamy, this is Finn, and Monroe and Myles"

"OK, I´m Abby Griffin and that is Marcus Kane"

"We know who you are"

**The drop ship**

Murphy had slept most of the day and it had started to become dark she almost thought to wake him to see that he was still alive, but she could hear his quiet breathing and decided it was best to let him rest.

Suddenly there was a sound outside, like a rustle of feet, and then all hell broke loose. Clarke only saw darkness.

**The woods **

Raven clutched her stomach, the bullet from Murphy had gone straight through, it hurt like hell, but she had stopped the bleeding and even managed to find some first aid kid leftovers to patch it up with. She could tell that it had worked, she felt better. After waking up there she had stayed away from the drop ship, in one of the caves a nearby. When she was feeling better she would go look for Finn and the others. _She hoped they were safe._

She thought no one had been back to the dropship yet but she hadn´t really searched the area though as she had prioritized getting better. Now it was time to take a look.

The bodies of the dead grounders still surrounded their former base. As she got closer she could clearly hear voices - not english - so she she crept up to see what was happening.

What she saw was a large group of grounders, the one they called Indra amongst them dragging a struggling Clarke and a dead-looking Murphy onto some horses, and before she had time to do anything they were off.

* * *

The blonde they called Clarke was conscious and holding up the other one whose name Indra didn´t know. He had been their prisoner twice. Well third time not-so-lucky. Indra had not appreciated that the prisoner only provided drops of information, especially about the mines and the number of both bullets and people. Well, she looked at him as he lay awkwardly across Clarkes lap on the horse, face dripping with blood and all over his leg. He was bound while she was allowed one hand free to hold him on the horse.

"If he falls off I´ll kill him myself" Indras voice was so close to Clarkes ear that the couldn't help but shudder.

Clarke wasn't going to give her that pleasure. Murphy moaned. He was waking up.

"I´ll keep you on" she said to Murphy, but he didn´t hear her.

**The Drop ship**

Bellamy was leading Kane and the whole group back to the drop ship from the dead end in the forest where they last had seen Octavia and Clarke. Abby was anxious, there had been no sign of them- Finn tried to comfort her by telling her Clarke had become very capable and that she and Octavia knew about the fog and what to do.

At the drop ship they found a frantic Raven.

"Finn, thank god you´re here, they took them"

"Who?" The whole group was paying attention now

"Clarke and Murphy, the grounders took them"

Abby gave out a small scream, Bellamy looked angry and Finn was confused.

Murphy?

**The grounder village**

This didn´t look good. Two guards were posted next to each pole onto which she and Murphy were currently tied. She had tried to protest that he was injured but they didn´t listen and instead backhanded her for her nerve.

Murphy looked bad, blood on his face from several cuts that opened up and his leg was dark with blood. It looked like it was still bleeding.

She decides not to focus on how thoroughly fucked they are.

"Murphy hang in there, someone will come for us" She though that any bad feelings she had left for the guy was not worth the effort in this situation. And deep down she knew he had not totally deserved what had happened. She and others did do their part in both the hanging and the banishment. She wanted to give him a chance.

"For you maybe" His bitterness was not lost on her. At least he is still concious.

"For what it is worth, what we did to you was wrong"

"Spear me the pity party" he cut her off.

"No, hear me out. I was also at fault in everything that happened to you. And I am sorry" Murphy looked at her, she seemed genuine. "We are in this together, so lets get out of it together. The rest of the messy business we can deal with afterwards".

"Well, princess, be my guest. If you can figure out a way to get our ass out of here I will be a model fucking citizen from here on out"

She smiles at the thought.

"I mean it Murphy, lets have a truce and work together, What do you know of the grounders that can help us, you have been here before?"

She wants to keep him talking, and he also may know something useful.

Murphy visibly winced, "What do I know, what do i know...I know they tortured me for three fucking days. In the end I just couldn't take anymore. Hadn´t it been for Anya I would have been dead"

Clarke remembered what he had looked like when he was sent back as a weapon, covered in blood, fingernails torn off, large burns and gashes.

"Anya? I thought she was dead"

"Nope, she recovered as I was tortured and when I was healing between sessions she was there in the same place. We talked. She helped me."

Clarke was impressed. The Anya she knew would never allow herself to show empathy towards a sky person, and a prisoner. She decides to push on

"What did you talk about, how did she help?"

"That is between me and Anya" he said quietly and looked almost sad or was it that his eyes started to close.

"MURPHY", she cried as he fell unconscious. Again.

The guards did nothing,

**The Woods**

Octavia had no luck finding Bellamy and the others. Not even a trace. She didn't give up though and pressed on. She must have slipped up that newly acquired grounder sensibility because before she could properly react with the sword she held in her hand she was swept up in the air by some ropes and was left dangling as her sword hit the ground with a thud.

**The drop ship**

"Murphy? What has that bastard doing with Clarke" Bellamy couldn´t contain himself. "Calm down" Kane tried to use the voice of reason but no one but his own troops were listening. "He tried to hang me" Bellamy continued"

Abby and Kane looked shocked.

"Well, you tried to hang him" that came from Finn. Bellamy glared at him.

"Murphy killed two people, and got a little girl killed" Bellamy again.

"STOP! I don´t care who my daughter was with, who are the grounders?" Abby was not at all happy with this new information but she was impatient. That could wait. Her daughter was out there.

Finn took it upon himself to answer, Bellamy was too angry. "Grounders are the other survivors here, they have been here for generations and adapted to the radiation" he paused "We´re not exactly friends like you saw when you met us"

"And when did you see this Murphy last. I remember him from the list, his signal was one of the first to stop"

"When he ran from the drop ship after he tried to kill Bellamy"

Bellamy was pleased at least that came out loud and clear. He thought they needed to leave as soon a possible. But first he needed to find Octavia. With Clarke surviving the acid fog he was sure Octavia had too. With any luck she was looking for him. With her they had a small chance to talk to the grounders. Thank God for his sister and her taste in men.

Finn was worried about Clarke. He did not like the latest development with Murphy, not one bit.

**The grounder village**

He was in pain, and the worst thing is, he was getting used to it. Both he and Clarke had been questioned, some people would call it torture, him included. He looked over at her, she seemed beat, but not to damaged, Anya wasn´t at sadistic as Indra, and of course he got Indra as his interrogator. Not that he would want Clark to suffer more that him, he had grown to respect the blonde warrior. She was sleeping peacefully. Maybe they gave her something to sleep.

His leg was aching and as he looked up Indra was standing over him with a knife. "Now sky boy, I wasn´t quite finished with you when Anya interrupted me. What can I do to that pretty face of yours. Almost no scars left, we need to fix that"

Murphy tried to pull away but the ropes stopped him and Indra´s knife cut his face, and he cave out a cry as he could feel his face getting wet. The she moved down to his torso and made a slow agonizing cut from one side to the other. As she was moving on to his arms he heard a shout.

"STOP THAT NOW" It was Anya. "You were told to back off him!"

Indra indeed backed off and Murphy gave out a sigh. Clarke slowly came to from all the noise and was initially confused before she quickly sussed it out.

"You OK?" she looked at Murphy who was more or less panting in pain.

"I´ll live"

She wasn´t so sure, the blood was pooling around him.

Anya makes quick process of Indra, she is out like a light, and the guards takes the grounder away. Anya still has standing in the village and the orders had been not to kill the prisoners.

She gets a knife and cuts Clarkes bonds and motions her to help him.

Clarke can´t believe it. The she remembered what Murphy had said. He must have made an impression on the tough warrior. Clarke didn't waste a second but got up to help Murphy. He looked like he was sleeping.

**The Woods**

Octavia was getting tired of hanging in this position. She was about to start gnawing at the ropes with her teeth when she hears something familiar. Bellamy

She can't believe the feeling of happiness that flows through her. He isn´t dead!

Now they can get back to Clarke and start to look for the others. Just for fun she decides to wait until they are right below her. He is with several people she doesn´t recognise

"Bellamy" she shouts and he looks up. "Octavia!"

She is lowered down and brother and sister can have their reunion.

**Grounder village**

Unbelievably Murphy is awake and at least somewhat alert. Anya stands in the doorway looking at them. Clarke is stitching the stomach wound and it takes ages. Murphy flinches a bit but doesn't really complain. Clarke is impressed and a bit sad that he is so tolerant of pain.

"What should we do?" He whispers

Clarke continues and works on a gash next to his eye "You´re not going anywhere until you are a bit better"

"And then you kill me?"

She could tell he was referring to another conversation and she saw a gleam in his eyes. "You must be getting better, at least you haven´t lost your bad sense of humour"

**The woods**

"So what do you think Octavia, can you talk to Indra or Anya about Clarke?" It was Bellamy who had approached her.

"After what we did to them and what Lincoln did, they might kill us on sight but it is worth a try. Clarke has grown on me. We need her"

Bellamy nodded. God, he loved his sister!

When mentioning the L word Octavia felt a pang in her chest. Where was he? She thought maybe another tribe had got to him but she couldn´t be sure. Last time she saw him he was heading out to warn Anya about scouts from on the other grounder tribes.

"Nothing will happen to you O. I will go with you. We can offer them medical supplies and weapons for Clarke"

"What about Murphy?"

"What do you know about him?" Bellamy sounded suspicious.

"Me and Clarke found him half-dead and tied up behind the drop ship. She stayed to look after him while I was out looking for you when this stupid thing happened" she gestured to the trap she had been freed from. "Did they get him too, you just forgot to mention it?"

"Yes" Bellamy looked mildly embarrassed. "Why do you care about him? he tried to kill me"

"You started it, He´s not innocent by any means but he deserves a second chance. He helped with the food and when everybody was sick"

"You mean he caused everybody being sick" Bellamy was angry now

"No, that wasn´t his fault and he didn't kill Charlotte. Charlotte killed Charlotte. That banishment was a big mistake, see where it got us"

"I still blame him"

"Go ahead but we are bargaining for him too"

When had she started to care.

**Grounder Village**

Indra was furious that that sky boy was not dead yet. But he would be soon. He had insulted here more that once when he was a prisoner, No one survived all those beatings and cuts for an eternity. Why couldn´t the Commander understand that the prisoners should be executed. They had killed so many of their people. Another problem was that Clarke, she knew what she was doing, healing wise, and the boy, and Murphy wasn't dead as planned.

Anya was also a problem. It was almost like Indra suspected that she liked the boy. _In a romantic way. _There was no romantic love in the grounder tribe, those who were discovered were banished, or killed. How could that infatuation happen, Indra wondered. Maybe when they were recovering, the boy from the interrogation and Anya from escaping the mountain men. They had been kept in the beds next to each other that must have been it.

That "relationship" would have an unhappy ending, she would make sure of it.

Anya looks at Clarke tending to Murphy and felt a pang in her heart. She should have been doing that but it would have been too suspicious. She though Indra was already suspicious. She and the sky boy Murphy had connected in a way Anya had never experienced before. They had managed to talk quite a lot, and it was out of character for her to open up like that about herself but he had done the same, and she was sure it wasn't normal behaviour for him either.

His father had died trying to save him from some illness and his mother couldn't cope afterwards. Anya could relate, her parents had also died young, even if her mother had never hated her. An easy target, Murphy had been recruited to a gang of underground fighters after that. He had a hard look in his eyes when he told her, but when she explained that more or less the same had happened to her, he relaxed. Seemed the ground had it´s own version of the pits.

And after that, in between the horrific beatings, they connected as he healed up. In the end the beatings stopped and she had to give him the virus. She was instructed to help him escape so he could infect the others. It broke Anya's heart that she had to do that, but if she didn´t Indra would kill him on the spot. It was her idea and the only thing that had saved him.

She couldn't reveal their friendship that was a death sentence for sure. This way they both lived. And now he was back. Anya sighed.

Suddenly there was commotion outside, Anya runs out of the tent to see what is going on.

Octavia and a boy she doesn´t know approach the camp carrying a couple of big bags and a white flag.

"STOP" Indra calls out as Octavia steps forward.

"Indra, Anya" Octavia starts camly, "we are looking for our people, Clarke and Murphy. I know there have been casualties, that is war. This is trade"

"What?" Indra spits out. She can´t believe the sky girls nerve.

"Medicine"

"Your Murphy has already used up half of ours" Indra answered "it is not enough"

"We have weapons" Bellamy chimes in from the back. Indra looks intrigued. Bellamy takes out a handgun,_ no way they are getting an automatic rifle,_ and holds it up for Indra to see. The whole camp is paying attention now.

"Bring me the medicine," Indra commands Anya. Who is the leader here anyway?, Anya thinks, but does as she says. She misses the commander. Anya does not have the same standing as before. She has lost so much authority since she was lost to the Mountain men. Powers shifts quickly in the grounder tribe.

Indra on the other hand sees a chance to gain some power. The medicine the sky people are offering is exactly what will save the Commander´s sick little sister. She knows an opportunity when she sees it, she needs to gain some momentum in her relationship with the commander and this is just what she needs!

Indra smiles and goes into the tent to get the prisoners, and Clarke escort an obviously exhausted Murphy out of the tent.

"Clarke" Bellamy shouts, and she smiles at him, but also confused as to what is happening.

"You can have the blond warrior but you cannot have scarred sky boy here. He stays with us" Indra´s words make Murphys heart drop, this is not good.

Bellamy looks at Clarke and Octavia who are unsure of what to do. Octavia just can´t believe that they are not dead yet. She had given their plan a hundred to one.

Anya thinks fast and whispers under her breath to Clarke, who stands next to her, "Go, I´ll take care of Murphy, if you create a diversion I´ll make sure he gets out", Maybe she can make up for tricking him with the virus. She looks at Murphy who looks totally defeated. He he knows that Bellamy and Octavia will take Indra´s offer.

And then they do. Octavia tries to give him a supportive look but he misses it. Clarke goes off with them, and he is left between the two grounder women. Two guards drag him back into the tent and tie him back to the pole he was at before. He feels like shit.

**The woods**

They have walked less than five minutes, Clarke thought both Bellamy and Octavia looked at her a bit funny and she wondered what is was. Was there something they weren´t telling her? Then she saw her, Her mom!

They threw themselves into each others arms and hugged, and cried and squeezed and said "I thought you were dead" more or less simultaneously. Clarke feels strangely calm and Abby is almost hysterical.

"What about Murphy?" Raven suddenly says. Bellamy explains that he she wasn´t part of the deal the grounders offered - and Octavia looks a bit guilty. "So he´s dead?" someone asks.

"No" Clarke intervenes, "and we can´t leave him there. He´s safe for now, Anya will make sure of that, but Indra wants him dead"

"Bellamy says he´s a murderer Clarke, is this the right thing to do?" Abby can´t believe her daughter wants to go back. "Many of us are murderers, mom", Clarke replies. "We have to get him back. He almost died because of me"

"So what do we do" Octavia asks.

"Create some sort of diversion and Anya will take care of the rest" Clarke again "He can´t really walk, she will need to help him out of there. There will be at least two guards"

Abby was impressed with her daughter's new take-charge-attitude. Honestly it reminded Abby of her self.

**Grounder Village**

Murphy was miserable. He had been left alone, apart from the guards who where outside the tent. He was tied up and his whole body hurt, but especially the leg.

"How are you" Anya appeared in the doorway. "Ok" he replies. Anya looks at him with a symphatetic look,

"Ready to get out?"

He looks at her disbelievingly and arches one eyebrow.

"Most of the camp are out fixing a flood near our bathhouse, I´m getting us out now!"

She cuts his ropes, Murphy groans and gets up to a sitting position, _he can´t believe it!_ And that she is his liberator. He doesn´t have time to think more about it before Anya helps him up and manages to get him up on her back. "Boy, she is strong" Murphy thinks dazed, he has trouble keeping his eyes open.

"Stay with me Murphy" Anya says in a commanding voice, and then she holds him up and make them slowly leave the tent from the back.

She is right, the camp is more or less empty and Anya holds on to Murphy as they sneak out a side entrance of the main camp. Murphy can´t stay awake anymore.

Even with the weight of Murphy on her back Anya manages a semi-quick run back to the arranged meeting place He groans but doesn't wake up. She is worried.

No one is there. Suddenly an arrow pierces her arm and she falls to the ground, Murphy on top of her in a crumbling heap. She ducks while glancing around and sees someone in the distance. Indra.

"Bring back the boy" Indra sounds angry. She must have followed them.

Murphy is dead still, she´s afraid he´s already actually dead. She drags him behind a large rock and they are out of sight for now.

**The Woods**

Clarke, Bellamy and Octavia run in front the others. Raven is in bad shape and walks slowly. Finn will not leave her. The adults are forming the rear.

They reach the clearing and Clarke crouches down to check the surroundings. Her heart drops. She sees two people crouched down behind a rock, one of them completely still, the other clearly injured. She gestures to Bellamy who points out Indra and a gang of warriors further to the left

"They are fucked" Bellamy gives his insight

"We have to help them" Clarke is determined. What are their options? They have the guns, but so did the grounders now.

"I have an idea, do you still have the flair from the drop ship. Shoot into those dry bushes to create a fire and we will deal with whoever´s left"

"That is not much of a plan"

"It´s all we have"

Bellamy takes the flair gun and aims. No missing now, Bellamy says to himself. He didn't care so much about Murphy but it seemed Clarke now did and he wanted her approval.

The flair was off and it hits the spot. Within a minute they could see a flame and so had some of Indra´s grounder group who went to check it out. That left three; Indra and the two burly looking guards.

Anya had also seen the flame. Murphy had woken but made no sense, he was delirious. Made things even worse. But there was hope in that flame, she had a feeling it was Clarke. And sure enough, she saw her, Octavia and Bellamy sneaking in the trees towards Indra´s group. To help them she shouted at Indra.

"Why do you go to so much trouble for a sky boy Indra? Do you care about him perhaps"? Indra growled in response and picked up the unfamiliar gun she had traded for Clarke. That gave Clarke and Bellamy enough time to charge. Octavia was the surprise.

The battle was swift, but Indra came at them strong. She managed to get a shot off and Bellamy got a wound in the arm, but he held his ground while Clarke fought the two guards. She was much quicker than them and managed to feint to one side and make them crash into one another, but on top of her. Octavia was there with her knife _(actually Murphys knife)_ and killed them quickly and got them off Clarke. Clarke´s ribs hurt but she managed to get to slash at Indra´s feet and down she went. Clarke quickly shot her in the chest and Indra went still. Finally.

Clarke probably had broken a rib, Bellamy was bleeding but all three grounders went down. It was almost an anti-climax, but one that Clarke welcomed. Octavia was impressed.

By this time the others where there and with guns they had scared off the rest of the grounders and Abby ran to Clarke. "Are you hurt?" she looked Clarke up and down but Clarke didn´t have time for motherly concern and told her mom others needed her more.

They ran down to Anya and Murphy who were clinging onto each other, or more correctly, Anya was clinging onto Murphy who was passed out.

Abby got out her medical supplies with one hand while checking Murphy´s pulse with the other. "He has a pulse" she says to no one in particular. Clarke and Anya both sighed in relief. "Your arm" Clarke says and points to Anya, "I´ll fix it. Let them have some privacy". Clarke knows that having other people in your face in a stressful life-or-death situation is not ideal so she took it upon herself to remove herself and Anya. Abby is grateful. She removes the tourniquet. Murphy screams.

"What have you been through" Abby thinks as she exmines him. Scars everywhere, also old ones, nothing to do with this latest trauma. She starts cleaning the wound on his leg, It seems to be the most serious.

Abby came to her conclusion. She needed to stop the bleeding and the boy needed blood transfusions. She could propably find a mathing bloodtype from the files on the Ark, they´re still intact.

She called Raven over.

Raven was not amused. The psycho tried to kill her.

"Why me", she thought, but went over to Murphy without further deliberation. Abby had taken almost all his clothes off to assess the damage to patch up the largest wounds and his body sure was a sight. Scars and old wounds and burns everywhere on the upper body. He hadn´t been kidding about the torture. His face was covered in blood and you could still see the scars nest to is left eye from before.

"Can you help to hold him still while I stitch him up?"

It wasn´t really a question and Raven just moved to Murphy´s side, took his shoulders and got ready. It didn´t take long, Abby is a pro. Raven almost feels jealous, sometimes she wished she could heal people, not only machines.

Murphy hasn´t moved at all during the whole procedure and Abby thinks his pulse is worriedly weak. Raven has washed most of the blood of his face and where there are no scars his pallied skin is almost white. He is not in good shape, they need to move fast.

"His vitals are dropping. He needs blood as soon as we get him back to the dropship. IF we can find a match"

This Raven knows something about. Talk about fate or something! "You don´t have to check. I´m a match. We already did the blood check ups in case someone was injured and me and Murphy are a match. I gave him blood before, after he was caught by the grounders the first time"

"Wait, the first time! That explains his old injuries, right?"

Raven left the question hanging and proceed to hold her arm out. She would give him what he needed.

Abby has some sort of portable blood-tranfusion contraption and opens a vein in Murphy´s arm and one into Raven´s."Relax, he´ll only get one liter"

Raven thinks it sounds like a lot, but Murphy looks helpless and she suddenly really wants him to make it. What happened there, it must be Abby´s influence or something. He IS an asshole.

After the first transfusion his colour has improved. Raven had proved to be the answer.

She feels strangely proud.

**Camp Jaha**

Marcus Kane had been waiting and he was worried about Abby and the kids. How stupid was it not to send some military personnel with them. He liked Abby well enough but she was a bit of a troublemaker, and he didn´t want her to know more about the ground that him. Not a good idea with her spending all that time wth her daughter and the other "ground experts". He was in charge damn it!

A sunburnt and tired, but very much alive Jaha had turned up in the last few hours babbling on about some city of light like a crazed person. No one seemed to react that Marcus didn't step down now that the real chancellor was back. Well good, he would try to lock him up first chance he got. Out of sight, out of mind. The camp didn´t need religious fanatics for weak minds to follow.

**The woods**

They were going as fast as they could but that wasn't so fast. Finn and Abby, the only two not injured, carried the stretcher with Murphy while the others managed the best they could. Clarke held on to Anya, or the other way around, Bellamy was walking on his own, while Finn was assisting Raven who still felt some pain when she walked.

Anya whispered "thanks" to Clarke and Clarke nodded back, "thanks yourself. If you hadn´t pointed Octavia towards that cave when the acid fog hit we would both be dead. So we´re even"

Clarke smiled. So did Anya and both women felt a certain closeness to the other after what they had been through.

"So what happens now" Clarke asks and breaks the god atmosphere between them and she sees Anya stiffen. "I will see that he lives and then I have to be off. There is no place for me here anymore" She looks down and sighs. "I betrayed my tribe, and that for a sky person. I will never be forgiven"

Clarke is curious about the grounders motivations even if she thinks she knows the answer.

"But why, why did you do it?"

"It´s Murphy, I think I have these feeling for him. Your type of love. Romantic love. and it makes me crazy!" she almosts shouts. Abby looks back at her but turns back around. Did she blush, Clarke is not sure.

Clark looks at her seriously. "You say our type is romantic love. What is you kind of love?" Anya answers "We have many types of love. Love between warriors in battle together, love between mothers and children, love between commander and people. Romantic love between man and woman is considered weak and unnecessary. Survival is more important. But I can´t help it –it just happened!"

Anya looks completely distraught but Clarke almost wants to smile at her. Anya´s newfound feelings had taken her completely by surprise, and Clarke knew how THAT felt. She had those feelings in the beginning with both Bellamy and Finn, and she must admit that those feelings were not entirely gone.

"Hey Anya, its OK, and totally normal. Although I can´t really understand your pick I understand how you feel. Don´t leave then, stay and see that he gets well, and then decide. Does he know about this"

"I don´t know, I didn´t tell him" Anya seemed suddenly very upset and Clarke cut her of "okayokay, so stay, you can tell him"

Anya looked puzzled. "Stay? Won´t your people rip me to shreds?"

"Some might protest a bit, but you saved one of us. Actually two, you saved me too, and my mom that you´ve met is kind of a big deal with the Ark, so you should be ok"

"The Ark?"

"You´ll see."

Out of breath from traversing a steep hill they staggered together with the rest of the ragtag group.

Finn, Raven and Bellamy where just behind them.

"What do you think they are whispering about" Raven asked, more to make the time pass than anything. "You", Finn said as a joke but no one laughed.

Bellamys arm was hurting but he was worried about getting back before any retaliation from the Grounders. He liked Raven and since Finn seemed to be no threat to his relationship with Clark, they were also fine. He initially thought Finn was a lame free-spirited hippie, _the worst kind, but_ he had grown on him. Finn was OK. He looked over at the stretcher were Murphy's head was bobbing from side to side as they moved. He wasn't sure what he thought of this. Only a few days ago Murphy had tried to kill him in cold blood. I wasn't like he had really done anything to redeem himself since. Getting captured and tortured may get him some sympathy from the women but Bellamy wasn't duped that easily. He wasn´t done with Murphy yet, he was sure. If he at all survived that is. When he glanced at colour of guys face and the amount of blood on the stretcher, he wasn´t sure.

**Camp Jaha**

Marcus was observing.

Jaha was worryingly sitting chatting with a small group of people. Strange group of people too, they didn't know each other from before. It was a mix of young, old, men, women, common workers and scientists together. He was sure they were talking about the city of light. Damn! He should never have let Jaha out of solitary, but people had started to ask about him. Now he was roaming freely and his ideas found fertile ground with many disillusioned people on the ark. It was time for action.

But not yet, Abby was back

They had arrived that same morning, and Murphy was rushed to the infirmary where more of his blood type was waiting - _thanks Jaha -_ and the others finally could catch up with many of their comrades.

Monroe and Miller were there, even John Mbege made it. Almost 60 of the original 100 were there. Clarke almost couldn´t believe it. But still somewhere inexplicably missing, like Monty and Jasper.

Abby said that it was touch and go with Murphy but that he would recover and that we just had to wait for him to wake up. Anya beamed as she was looking in on him. Clarke smiled back as she walked out of the waiting area, this was good. Even if he was still out of it she wanted to give them some privacy.

On her way out of the infirmary she overheard Kane say to one of his allies. "We need to kill that grounder!"

**The woods**

Lincoln slowly regained consciousness, they didn´t give him enough drugs this time to keep him under. He was free! They obviously thought that he would succumb again to being a reaper. He almost laughed

Never again!

**Camp Jaha**.

"The ex-chancellor needs to be locked up before he starts a revolution" Marcus is preaching to the choir, he knows the people standing around him all agree with him. It is a small group who consists of his former allies, or non-jaha-supporters. But still the problem needs a solution. Marcus knows he doesn't really have the charisma to win an election, but he also doesn´t think he has to. He just has to make the people see that he was the logical option for leader. He could use the grounder to do it

* * *

Anya is feeling strangely out of place. Murphy is slowly recovering and she has more time on her hands than it takes to look at him sleep (even she can´t take anymore of that) and she explores the Ark. She doesn´t really talk to people, bit she can go where she wants.

When Murphy wakes up properly, she isn't there.

Murphy was anxious. Where was he and what had happened? He remembered being tortured at the grounders camp, his escape with Anya and strangely enough he remembered an older woman reassuring him about something and Anya saying that she would never leave him. He felt dizzy, had that been a dream?

A nurse came in to take his vitals, she didn´t look to happy. "Don´t move so much, your leg will only get worse"

He complied

* * *

"How is the boy?" Marcus has found Abby outside the infirmary

"He´ll live, but it was a close call"

"What about the grounder?"

Abby frowned. Why does he want to know?

"She´s fine and her name is Anya. What do you mean?"

Kane shrugged. "She needs to go, I´m sure she will betray us. We should terminate her"

Murphy is awake and hears the whole thing from behind the curtain. He has to warn Anya and Clarke. He tries to instill himself with a confidence she doesn´t think he has as he tries to get up. He gets to a standing position but has no chance.


	2. Chapter 2

**The Ark **

Someone has placed some sort of trial set up in the mess hall. There was a larger table for the judge and space for the defence and prosecution and even a space for the jury.

Clarke wants to throw up. Doesn´t Kane know how Anya helped? Obviously not.

Or is it someone else´s trial. She can tell that the people from the ark are excited about the upcoming event. The halls are positively buzzing. She passes Monroe and turns to walk with her.

"Whose trial?" Clarke whispers

"Murphy"

Clarke was shocked,

"Why?"

"The chancellor heard about the murders from and thought this was a good idea to keep the peace in camp. By revisiting it" Monroe spat out, clearly not liking the idea. Clarke didn't think anyone was interested in re-visiting that incident.

Clarke needed a plan, but with Murphy´s condition even the acting chancellor would not make him sit through any trial until he was better. Priorities Clarke! She needed to get Anya out of camp, or fix the problem some other way. Marcus Kane seemed to be the same power-hungry dick as before. The strict Exodus charter had been a lifesaver _when _the resources were scarce. Didn´t he realize that down here there they didn´t need it in the same way. Anya had helped them, betrayed her own people and this is her thanks. Same with Murphy, she didn´t deny that he had murdered those two boys, but her gut told Clarke he he deserved another chance.

She makes a note of asking Murphy about his feelings for Anya, if he had any. She hopes he does, they both deserve a break.

Anya was outside teaching some younger kids how to throw a spear when she saw Clark approaching. "Come with me, Murphy is awake"

Anya smiled at the news, but she could sense on Clarkes whole demeanor that something was up.

"What´s wrong, is he not going to be ok after all?" She asked sounding worried.

"He´s better I promise, It´s you I´m worried about"

They walked into the infirmary to find Abby checking up on her patient. Anya stayed back a bit as Clarkes mom put some sort of metal stick into Murphy´s mouth and said in a soothing voice: "Let´s see if your temperature has improved". That woman had excellent bedside manner.

"Mom" Clarke interrupted as Abby picked up Murphy´s chart.

"Not now, can´t you see I´m busy" Abby had always been a doctor who liked to focus solely on the patients, no interruptions. She found that the extra attention and care often helped them recover, and she was sure this boy was no exception. She had heard about the trial, and Abby did believed in justice, but not this way. She wondered if it was true that he had killed someone. The kids she´d asked confirmed that, Abby shrugged, but no one seemed to want a trial. Abby found that somewhat peculiar.

His fever was down, and his colour was better. The cuts and burns on his body had healed somwhat but he still l_ooked _like he was a deaths door and would keep that look for some time. "You´ll live" she smiled as she took out the thermometer and looked at it. 38,5. Good.

He smiled at her, and through all the cuts it looked almost eerie. "He can´t have heard about the trial, poor thing," Abby thought as she let her daughter and Anya have a place at his bedside. Should she tell Clarke what she knew about the Chancellors plan for Anya?

"Oh, I´m mr popular today, who next on the list, Bellamy?" The tone coming from the bed was joking, only a small smile from Murphy as he sees the new visitors.

"Shut it tough guy, I´m glad your better" Clarke looks at him with softness in her eyes. He did seem a bit more mellow version of himself. Suddenly she sees through some of his bravado.

"Anya rescued you, you know that right"

He has the decency to look a bit sheepish, "yes, and I want to thank you Anya" He looks straight at Anya as he speaks, his tone no longer joking. "I owe you my life"

"Well I almost took yours" Anya almost sobs. Murphy and Clarke both look confused and wait for her to continue. Anya pauses.

"...It was me who let you escape our camp after I gave you the sickness that killed so many of you". The tears run down her cheek as she speaks.

Clarke gives out a small gasp. Murphy visibly pales but composes himself enough to give Anya a small smile. "So what" he states seriously. "If you hadn´t done that, one of the others had. I wouldn't want to have had anyone else next to me in that camp. ANYONE! Hadn't you been there I would be dead. You HAVE to know that" he pleads with her. Gone is his ususal calm self, Clarke thought to herself. She starts to suspect that Anyas feelings may be reciprocated.

The exhausting exchange has taken its toll and Murphy lays back down and closes his eyes. "Thanks" he said again. "Both of you" and continued "but we have more pressing matters. Anya, you are in danger, the chancellor wants you dead. I overheard him talking to Abby"

"Yes, I overheard Kane too when..." Clarke cuts herself off "MOM" She stares at her mother. "Did you know and not tell me!" Clarke was livid "Anya has sacificed a lot for us, that is not an option!"

Murphy has taken Anyas hand in his.

**The woods**

Octavia was finally glad to be out of camp Jaha, she hadn´t given up on Lincoln, she would never, and she sure as hell wasn't going to find him in the Ark. That whole trial business made her sick. Sometime in the last few days her animosity towards the former outcast had subsided. She still felt a little guilty for that hanging, and the trade-off in the grounder village. It was better to just leave. She missed them already though.

They had saved Clarke, Anya and Murphy, A trio of names she never thought she would say together.

But where was Lincoln? Was he even alive?


	3. Chapter 3

_This is my first fanfiction ever, so that can of worms is now open ;)... This isn´t only the first fic published, but first I´ve ever written. Strugglig a bit with the mix of present tense and all kinds of variations of past tense. And plotholes! Suddenly I understand the importance of a good beta._

_Hope it still makes sense. I would love reviews, also negative ones, but please be constructive. This is so much fun that I plan to continue with more stories and fandoms._

**Chapter 3**

**The Ark**

"Relax, Clarke I was going to tell you just now" Abby explained to her daughter.

"We need a plan. Anya, you won´t be welcome back to the grounder village, am I right" Clarke looked at Anya who replied "No way, I am dead to them now. Maybe I would be welcome in one of the other grounder tribes, but It would mean I would be their slave for life"

Murphy has been uncharacteristically quiet, Clarke wonders what he is thinking.

"No, you need to stay here, AND be safe" It´s Abby´s turn to speak. "I think I have a solution at least for now"

She wants desperately to help her only daughter and her friends

"After all, Kane confessed to me his plans. Let me tell Jaha and the other commanders what Anya did and what she has sacrificed and that the Chancellor plans to take her out. They wouldn´t stand for that and it may buy us some time. Marcus won´t dare kill Anya openly and he will be the first suspect if she is killed. And she can help with weapons training, something I know Marcus and Jaha appreciates"

As Murphy tries to sit up further in the bed his body protests and he lies back with a frustrated moan.

"I am sick of not being able to do a thing. When will I be able to get out of here?" Murphy asks Clarke, but it is Abby who answers. "To early to tell really, my guess would be that it is probably a week or more before you can walk properly on that leg. Murphy groas, for once he really wants to help. but can´t. Typical.

"We still need to figure out what do about the trial"

Murphy´s heart sinks, he has a bad feeling this is about him "What trial?"

Shit, Clarke forgot he didn't know. "The Chancellor has decided to hold a trial after he was told about…"she hesitated, didn´t want to say it. Murphy looked away. He did feel ashamed about that, but no one gave _him_ a trial before they strung him up. He suddenly felt like he wanted the ground to eat him up. Clarke noticed and gave him some space. Anya looked worried.

Abby gave Murphy a mild sedative and he promptly fell asleep. "He needs more rest before that trial. I´ll go to talk to Jaha and the commanders about Marcus´ plans" She says as she heads out of the room.

"Well start talking to people," Clarke sounded determined.

**Ravens workshop/The Ark**

Jaha had seen the light, Raven wasn´t impressed. But a small part of her was jealous of his undying faith. Must be nice, she thought, to be so blind! Apart from the buzz about the trial and Anya´s arrival things had been quiet on the Ark since they came back. Nobody had seen any grounders. "Quiet before the storm" Raven thought.

She actually contemplated a visit to Murphy to say she´s forgiven him for the bullet; the pain was now almost non-existent. Apparently he was a lot worse off. But she could wait until tonight when it was less busy around there. She was happy in her workshop, it was her space, and she liked both the work, and the quiet. She heard a familiar tap on the door; Finn. Raven smiled and let him in. They had been hanging out more than before and some of the old Finn-Raven chemistry was coming back. It would have been like riding a bike. If she had known how to do that.

**Marcus´ quarters/The Ark**

Marcus Kane wanted to keep his new role as chancellor; he was not about to give it up! He needed everybody´s attention away from that idiot Jaha, and he thought the trial against John Murphy would do exactly that. He couldn't believe his luck when he was carried into camp. He had heard about the boy´s deeds from several people, he didn´t have all the details, but that was what the trial was for. The spectacle of it suited him perfectly, and he just knew the boy was guilty.

**The woods**

Lincoln roamed round the woods looking for any sign of Octavia. No luck yet.

Suddenly he came across a group of grounders from another tribe that lived closer to the mountain planes. What were they doing here so far away from their villages? He managed to stay out of sight and followed them about twenty minutes to a small clearing where some others were waiting. He recognised them at once. His own people! The Commander was Lexa; she must have returned. Anya and Indra was nowhere to be seen. Tristan stayed as close as he could, the whole group seemed anxious. If only he could hear what they were talking about. He had a feeling it concerned the sky people, but he was to far away to tell

**Reviews are appreciated.**


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

**The infirmary/The Ark**

Murphy feels restless. He is more alert today and even has a touch of cabin fever in the cramped infirmary. Anya has been to see him several times in the last couple of days, but she doesn´t really say much, and now she hasn´t been there since yesterday. He misses her. A so-called lawyer has come to talk to him about the upcoming trial. The ark only had two and naturally he got stuck with the most incompetent one. The two lawyers from the Ark just knew the exodus charter back to back - it´s not like they had studied law and ethics for years. Murphy was dreading the whole debacle; he did not want to revisit either the hangings or the murders. He winces, he does feel guilty about those, what was he thinking? He has already justified it to himself somewhat, but he know he can´t dwell too much on it without going to a very dark place, and he doesn't want that miserable feeling again.

For once he doesn´t feel totally alone and he wants it to stay that way. He waits for Anya to come, he has a feeling she will. And he can´t remember last time someone made him feel like she does.

It is kind of exhilarating.

**The grounder camp in the woods  
**

Lincoln struggles against his bonds. He is mad at himself, he should have been more careful. It´s not like he doesn´t know his own tribe´s tactics. On the upside he is in full earshot of what is going on, and he soon is glad he is. The two grounder tribes have been joined by another 5 tribes; 2 of them from across the sea, a couple of weeks trip. Lincoln is worried something very sinister is afoot.

His suspicions are soon confirmed.

Lexa stands in the middle of the group and shouts in a dominant voice "The skaikru has killed many of our people, more than 300 burned on the battlefield. This is our land, and has been for hundreds of years. We are here, and we are staying. This is WAR!"

Lexa´s eyes are burning and Lincoln can feel the intensity. So can all the others and cheers and shouts support her statements. He needs to warn Octavia and the others!

**Outside the same camp**

Bellamy has gone back to the Ark camp; he had to make it to the trial, or else he would be the one in jail.

Octavia can see Lincoln tied up close to where the grounders hold the meeting. She supposed they don't want him out of their sight, but it also makes it difficult to get to him. She sneaks closer and manages to make the agitated meeting work to their advantage. When they are preoccupied she throws Lincoln a knife. He looks up surprised but smiles to himself when he sees her. He pockets the knife and waits for the right moment.

**Ravens workshop/The Ark**

Raven is done with today´s workload and waits for Finn. They had gotten used to these nightly meet ups the last few days and tonight was no exception. She even had secured some moonshine from Monty´s old stash. Monty, she sighed. Monty, Jasper and more than 30 kids had been missing since the acid fog hit, it almost didn´t bear thinking about.

Finn enters, Jaha in tow. Raven is taken aback. The ex-chancellor always struck her as a kind of fanatic.

And Finn had that streak in him, for sure.

"Hey", he says, "look who I found"

Jaha laughs and sits down "Let´s not argue about who found who, but I would love for you to hear me out about the city of light"

"That is the plan" Finn says and lets Jaha continue to explain what the people he met after he landed had told him. Finn had already heard most of it, this was for Raven´s benefit.

Raven listens but remains sceptical. Somebody has to in this company.

She feels like she is loosing Finn.

**Mess hall/The Ark. **

The air is electric in the normally quiet-sounding mess hall. This is the first trial in a decade. John Murphy is lead out in chains and sits down at the defence table next to Jacobs, the lawyer. Clarke examines him visually and decides he is doing OK. The result of the trial is what she is worried about; medical had already cleared him for trial

There have been no attacks on Anya and Clarke and Abby think their plan of talking to Jaha had worked. Anya was allowed to stay. For now.

The jury consists of a group of 7 people, while the judge is Marcus Kane. Clarke is sure that is not the way a legal system is supposed to work. The current leader who also acts as judge? But who was she supposed to protest to?

Marcus clears his throat and welcomes everybody to the trial and will the defendant please rise. Murphy gets up and he looks almost bored. Clarke is sure it is a coping mechanism. She nods at him and he nods back.

Kane starts proceedings after a formal introduction "Please let the prosecution call their first witness"

"We call Bellamy Blake, Chancellor"


	5. Chapter 5

_Authors note_

_I noticed that I called the Ark "Camp Jaha" in the first chapter. They are one and the same. And it is fitting that the name changes back anyway, hint, hint ;) _

_I´ve managed to outline the next few parts of the story so hopefully now there will be less of those odd scenes where I seem to have forgotten who was there so people suddenly seem to appear. And the spellchecker has done a couple of weird things to a few sentences… _

_Well, well, bygones, on with the story. Who would have thought this would turn out to be a legal drama ;) _

_Don´t worry the trial won´t drag out. And there is a death coming up, I´m warning you. Reviews would make me happy, and makes me write more. And faster**.**_

Chapter 5.

**The grounder camp, the woods. Far from the ark**

The grounders are still discussing the impending attack. Despite Lexa´s speech there seems to be disagreements between several of the tribes. Octavia hides behind some dense bushes but she has a good view of the whole scene. Lincoln was tied up, sitting by the horses with a guard on watch. She knew he had a knife, now he just had to act.

When the arguing got even more intense - _she heard weapons being drawn_ \- Lincoln took advantage of the noise to cut his ropes. The guard was to preoccupied with the ruckus to notice. He was down in an instance and Lincoln moved behind the horses and snuck out of the clearing.

Octavia meets him behind a large tree, they hug but said nothing as they venture further away from the grounder war meeting. When they had run about 20 minutes it felt safe enough and Octavia motioned for Lincoln to stop. They were in an area of large, dark spruces with dense shrubs, they wouldn´t be seen there.

"We need to warn your people" Lincoln was out of breath, "There will be an attack soon". He bent down panting.

Octavia didn´t hesitate "We leave now!"

What they didn´t know was that the attack was already on the way, and the enemy had horses.

**The mess hall, the Ark**

Bellamy walks slowly to the chair assigned for witnesses and sits down. The prosecutions lawyer - the good lawyer, Murphy thought – clears his throat and starts

The packed mess hall/court room was dead silent in anticipation. Many didn´t know what had gone on as the kids were unwilling to disclose more than the bare details. Abby knew though, she thought this was a bad idea.

"State your name"

"Bellamy Blake"

"You know the accused John Murphy?"

"Yes, I do" Bellamy looks over at Murphy who turns away and looks down. Bellamy is dreading this

"Can you explain how you found at that Connor had died?"

"Clarke told me, we thought that he must have choked on blood in his sleep"

"Do you still think that?

"No" There are some low gasps from the audience.

"Explain"

"He had been sick but he had been improving so Clarke thought the whole thing was a bit strange. Connor didn´t have any residue blood in his mouth, and Murphy had been on watch that night. We had a lethal disease spreading in camp that he had brought in from the grounders. One of the symptoms was vomiting blood"

Another gasp from the audience. Bellamy continues

"Connor was the one who put the noose around Murphy´s neck on the day that we banished him. I believe he killed him as revenge"

The jury looks at Murphy. Murphy looks indifferent and stares straight ahead with a blank expression. Anya tries to get his attention but he doesn´t look in her direction. She senses that he is too ashamed. His bounds wrists gives him away, his hands are tense. No way he is not having a hard time, she thought.

"What about Myles?"

"That I almost saw, I was in the next room. Jasper went up the ladder to the second floor of the drop ship and saw John with a plastic bag practically over Myles head and Myles was dead. Jasper told me later but I heard the whole thing"

Why did he use his first name, Murphy wonders.

"Can you explain about the hanging you mentioned?"

"A couple of weeks before Chancellor Jaha´s son, Wells Jaha, was found killed. We thought grounders had done it, but when Octavia and Jasper found John´s knife"

Stop it, Murphy thought, it was strangely intimate to hear Bellamy refer to him as John. No one did that, just his parents.

Bellamy looked strained now

"- next to two fingers – Wells´ fingers. And we added two and two together and the whole group agreed to punish him"

"How?" the lawyer presses on.

"By hanging him from a tree" Bellamys voice is quiet. You can hear a pin drop.

"So then what"

"A girl called Charlotte shouted that she was the one who had done it, and Clarke cut Murphy down. He wanted to kill her for that. Not Clarke, but Charlotte. I tried to stop him" Bellamy´s voice shook "In the end Charlotte jumped off a cliff and we banished Murphy from the camp for his crimes"

Bellamy was finished.

"Thank you son. Your witness Jacobs"

Murphys lawyer gets up, "So when John Murphy was banished he hadn´t killed anyone?"

"Technically no" Bellamy answers. And to his own surprise he continues"It was a mistake. We should never have done it" and looks straight at Murphy as he says it. Murphy looks back and his face is animated for the first time since the trial began.

"Did you have any proof of Connors murder?"

"I didn´t"

"And where is Jasper, can he back up your account of the other murder?"

"He is missing"

"So we only have your word for it?"

"Seems so"

Murphy couldn´t understand why his assault on Bellamy and shooting Raven had not come up yet. Hadn´t Bellamy told them?

"So no proof there either. Chancellor, the defence is finished with this witness"

Bellamy stands up, looks over at Murphy and whispers "we´re even"

Murphy nods.

**The woods**

Octavia was exhausted but they still weren´t close to the Ark. She was worried they would be to late. She could see in Lincolns eyes that he thought the same.

**Outside the Ark perimeter. **

Several grounder armies had gathered. Lexa stood among her advisers and delivered the last plans. They would avenge their dead and take back their land.

She slowly raised her spear to make the signal to move in.

_I have outlined more chapters. This was actully supposed to have some more scenes but that court scene became a monster. So no deaths yet. Muahahahahahahaha._


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter 6**

It is Raven who hears the drumming first. Bellamy has just sat down when she cries "ATTACK". Most of the people formerly known as the 100 seem to instinctively know what to do. Abby is impressed. Her people, if that is the right term, are less organized. Some are blatantly terrified.

Clarke gives orders for positions. Raven and a ginger-haired boy called Felix collect the rest of the weapons and ammo and gives it out as people had off to their assigned places.

Anya has headed over to Murphy and tells the guard to unchain him, and to her surprise she does so without protest

"Anya, get over here" Clarke shouts "How many do you think there are?"

"Could be a hundred, but if they have a truce with the other tribes, several hundred" Murphy was now up next to her. Clarke gives him a gun. He looked surprised but accepted.

Clarke shouts, "We need to come up with a plan. Anyone have any ideas?"

Raven, "think", she willed herself.

Bellamy, Clarke and Murphy fights back with a group of armed kids and some guards. A small group of grounders have managed to get through the door but are instantly shot down by Bellamy and Murphy.

"I have an idea", Murphy hears Raven say.

Of course, Raven! Murphy could hug her if he thought she would approve.

"We can make them think that we have the same weapon as on the drop ship. That would scare them at leas for a while. They just need to see the large flames. And we have fuel in the lab"

Bellamy runs to get it almost before she finishes the sentence.

While she works out a plan that will make the fuelled flame imitate the drop ship take-off power the fight is relentless. Clarke catches a bullet in the arm, Murphy in the shoulder, but they are both high on adrenaline, that is an effective painkiller.

Clarke is impressed with Murphy´s shooting ability, she´d only really seen him fight in dirty fistfights, but he is calm and methodical in his shooting. She saw his arm had stained red and pointed "Are you OK?" "Same to you, princess", he points back at her own bloody arm.

Then they hear a huge blast outside. Raven had done it. The fighting stops, the grounders are running. Hopefully they would stay gone.

Anya had been fighting on the other side of the room. She runs over to Murphy and gives him a massive hug, and after a seconds hesitation he returns the hug heartedly and kisses her on head. They are adorable.

Clarke feels like she is spying and goes to look for Bellamy.

People are relieved, but restless. There won´t be much sleeping tonight Clarke thinks.

Murphy is on his own, enjoying some victory glory for once. Anya is asleep but he is to wired, his shoulder is aching, and he roams around the ark enjoying the freedom. He almost feels happy. It is a strange feeling, he could get used to it. It is quiet outside. He relaxes and sips from the flask of moonshine he has been nursing the last hour. Truthfully he was a bit drunk. Maybe that was why he felt happy. Then he thinks of Anya and smiles. Time to get back.

He suddenly hears a noise behind him, but he doesn´t have enough time to react before everything goes black.

**Storage room, the Ark**

Finn has been hiding with Jaha throughout the whole battle, just quietly talking. Finn admires Jaha´s vision and he feels he has found a kindred spirit.

The decision has been made!

When all is quiet they manage to sneak out unnoticed. Finn leaves a note for Raven, not wanting to risk finding her.


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter 7**

Anya wakes up alone. Murphy must have gone out at some point. She takes her sword and goes to look for him. The Ark is quiet, even if most people are still up. There are still people cleaning up blood in the mess hall.

Where was he?

She runs into Bellamy. "Murphy went outside with a bottle of moonshine, haven´t seen him since" he lets her know.

The moonshine is on the ground just outside the door. She picks it up. It is half empty. Why would he leave it there?

"Anya" someone calls. "I have been looking for you, I saw them take him" It was Raven. She didn't need to specify who him was.

"It was that big grounder guy with the braids and face tattoos," Raven explains. "Tristan" Anya blurts out. "That bastard" She is furious!

She is out of the camp in 20 seconds. She knows these woods and has an idea of the route Tristan would take. They can´t be far ahead!

Suddenly she sees them ahead. It is just 4 of them. Murphy´s hands are bound and he is walking attached to a rope. He limps slightly and holds his right shoulder. They have been beating him.

She takes out the gun Raven gave her and aims. The bullet takes her by surprise but it hits one of the grounders in the head. She repeats it and hits the guy to her right. Hey, she was a natural! Tristan has drawn his sword and is advancing on her and he smiles cruelly as he pierces Murphy´s shoulder with a swift stab. Same place as the bullet wound. Murphy screams without even thinking about it, and he falls on his knees.

Anya advances on Tristan and they start battling. The forth grounder is kicked down by a now laying down Murphy who somehow gets the grounders head between his legs and with one movement he breaks grounders neck. He looks up at Anya in time to see her stomach pierced with Tristan´s sword. He can´t believe his eyes. But he also can´t keep his eyes open and he crashes to he ground with a thud,

It is Anya´s turn to scream, but as she falls she takes the knife in her left hand and slashes her former tribe members throat in one motion. She just has time to realize that she saved them before she too passes out. Tristan is no longer breathing.

The grounders are still retreating, the fuel trick proved to be an effective scare tactic. They wouldn´t risk loosing another 300 souls.

They don´t notice that of the six people who lay covered in blood next to the trail, two are still breathing.

**Raven´s workshop, the Ark**

Raven is having a quiet moment; she could actually have been sleeping, when Clarke pops her head in. She seems happy Raven thinks; maybe she finally slept with Bellamy. As Raven could testify, it was memorable. And she didn´t even have feelings for the guy

"Have you seen Murphy or Anya? Or Finn for that matter? I´m starting to think people are hiding from me" Clarke sound a little bit annoyed.

"Well, people may be hiding from you but they are running away from me" Raven quips. She explains about Finns departure with Jaha and the note.

"Anya went after Murphy, I thought she went to get you"

"Went after Murphy, did he go somewhere" Clarke didn´t understand

"Nope, he was dragged out of camp by that Tristan guy, I saw them just as they were at the edge of the forest. I told Anya as soon as I saw her."

**The woods**

They decide to get Bellamy and head out in the direction Raven saw Tristan go.

They´re in luck, they walk straight onto them. They are practically laying on the trail. Couldn´t have been more than a few hundred meters from the Ark

Anya lays on her back while Murphy is tangled up in his own limbs and that of one of the grounders. Neither are moving.

Clarke takes their pulse and finds one on Murphy, she´s not so sure about Anya. "Bellamy", She shouts a bit to loudly. This is grounder territory.

Bellamy helps her with CPR.

Raven looks Murphy over and could conclude that he was clearly bleeding from what seemed to be another knife wound, this one below the shoulder. He must have been in a close fight, his knuckles were raw and face was beaten up. She lifts his shirt and pushes a piece of sterilizing bandage to the wound while securing some bandages they had been clever enough to bring, and twists it around his chest to secure everything.

She exhales. She hadn´t been aware that she had been holding her breath. Now they have to get back the Ark before any grounders turn up. She knows they will come back to bury their dead.

Clarke looks at her with a devastated expression, and then looks at Anya and shakes her head. Raven has the urge to cry but she doesn´t.

They make it back to camp


	8. Chapter 8

**Chapter 8**

**The infirmary, the Ark**

Anya was gone. Clarke couldn´t believe it. Anya was the one who had made Clarke understand what the grounders were about, or more specifically how they viewed the group from the drop ship as enemies. But after what they had been through Anya had slowly accepted her former foes and her obvious feelings for Murphy had shown Clarke a more emotional side of her.

Most uncharacteristically Clarke starts crying as they put Anya´s body in one of the cold storage rooms on the Ark.

It was all catching up to her.

They had already rushed Murphy to the infirmary where Abby was patching him up again. She almost didn´t have to, Raven hade done an excellent job. As the stab wound was bad enough, his general state worried her. But he was going to live for now.

Murphy comes to with a groan a couple of hours later. Clarke is standing above the bed looking grim, and his heart drops. "Anya" he manages to get out and Clarke shakes her head. "She….didn´t make it I´m sorry"

Murphy doesn't know how to reply and he just looks away from Clarke. He doesn´t want her to see that he is about to start crying. Nobody had ever seen him cry, not even when his father was floated, and he wasn´t about to start now.

Clarke seemed to pick up on that and quietly said. "I´ll leave you alone" and exited the room after she checked the bandage one more time. Murphy didn´t stop the tears after that.

**The mess hall, the Ark**

Turned out the mess hall had become _the_ forum for all public debates and political agitation, _not just trials_. It was packed with most of the group who had started to make this place their home and all eyes were on Abby Griffin who was standing on a large table at the front looking out over the crowd.

She had dressed up. Gone were the usual jeans and t-shirt and she wore more of a uniform, grey trousers with a sharp matching jacket.

"Friends, people of the Ark" she started.

Her loud voiced made the hailer give out scratching sound. She continued in a softer voice

"We have started to build a home here but that is just the beginning. We need to build a new society here on earth"

She paused for effect. Someone shouted "yeah" in the back. Raven cringed. She didn´t see the need for the big speech, let´s get on with the work. But she liked Abby well enough, so she supposed she could cut her some slack

"It is not going to we a walk in the park but we can do it. No more petty arguing, no more trials! And no more Marcus Kane as your chancellor. If you will have me I will act as your leader while we get our bearings here and when we have a good setup we will have e proper democratic election. Anyone with me?"

The crowds erupts into loud cheers and Raven hears shouts of "Abby, Abby, Abby" from a group of especially devoted followers. Jackson and his crowd are beaming. Clarke seems proud while Bellamy looks somewhat bemused.

"Thank you, thank you" Abby looks happy.

"We will change up some of the work detail, we need more food for starters. Who wants to help set that up?"

Several hands are in the air. Bellamy´s among them

The crowds disperse and people go about their business again as Abby, Bellamy and three others gather to map out their immediate future.

**The dead zone**

Sun. Heat. Sand. Wind. He didn´t know what was worst.

Finn had never been so thirsty. He and Jaha had some water left but Jaha was relentless in his rationing and they would only have a sip every hour. The sip was almost torture when he knew that it would be an hour until the next one.

Why did he come on this ridiculous trip? Finn was not sure if he was more annoyed at himself or Jaha. The man on his mind was out of sight walking behind him. Finn could hear the sloshing sound from the water container, _this was hell_ – and he wondered how long it was until next sip.

Around them was only desert as far as the eye could see.

**The infirmary, the Ark. **

Raven surprised herself by being worried about Murphy. Did he know that Anya had died? Raven couldn´t forget seeing her laying lifeless in the forest and then unable to save her. So after Abby´s big speech she goes to check on him.

He is sleeping, head to the side and one arm over the his bandaged chest. His body is a mess of scrapes, burns and cuts, but at least finally clean. When Raven and Clarke had found them he had been almost unrecognizable, covered in mud and blood.

She doesn´t want to wake him up - _he needs the sleep_ – but as she leaves she hears him say her name. She turns and smiles softly

"Hi"

"You are the last person I was expecting" He looks puzzled. Raven keeps smiling.

"Well, you´ve warmed on me, after some damn good fighting against the grounders, and that whole unpleasant trial business. And Anya…." Raven isn´t smiling anymore

Murphy closes his eyes and sighs "Yeah"

"I just want to say I´m sorry, you two deserved a shot"

"She didn´t deserve to die, I wish I could take her place. It´s not like I would be missed"

"John Murphy" He jumps at hearing his full name. Raven looks pissed. "If you want to go down that path I can´t stop you, but you are not the camp criminal anymore, you would be missed and you know it. No she didn´t deserve to die but neither do you. So stop the pity party and think of what Anya would want you to do"

Raven has said her piece and the room is silent. Murphy seems to have got the point "You drive a hard bargain Reyes"; he gives her a sad smile. He looks absolutely exhausted and Raved decides she should let him rest. She kisses him on the cheek, cups his face and says, "Well, someone has to" and gets up to leave the room.

"And I´m sorry for shooting you"

Raven turns her head back in and smiles as she says, "I know"

Murphy still feels like shit, he can hardly move without pain ripping through his body, but somehow his mood is somewhat lifted. At least for five minutes.

Anya was to be buried in the morning. He wasn´t going to be able to attend, Abby had refused even to consider the idea. It upset him more than he had expected.

It is impossible to sleep.

**The woods**

Octavia is walking next to Lincoln still not believing that they were finally alone and not in any danger or hurry. It had been so hectic since the battle, and Lincoln had several long interviews with Abby and the leaders of the commanders about grounder tactics and culture that they hadn´t had much time to themselves. With Marcus gone there was not talk of "getting rid of the grounder", Actually the opposite, everybody wanted a piece of him, to learn about life on earth.

So they left.

They had gone south, the other direction from Lincoln´s old camp, and into what grounders called neutral territory, or no mans land. At least it used to be, Lincoln had explained. Now he wasn´t so sure. But if they were to start fresh, this would be the best option. There was game, plants, and water, everything they needed to survive

And they hadn´t seen anyone yet. So far so good.

When they stop for a break and a meal, Octavia takes Lincoln's hand, pulls him close and they share an intimate kiss

Octavia wants to savour the feeling forever.

_Next up; Mount Weather. I think…need to plot some more. _


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter 9

**Council meeting, the Ark. A few weeks later. **

The interim council had set up shop in one of the smaller rooms still intact, the mess hall was just busy for long discussions about how best to prepare up for winter and make sure that enough food was brought in while settling smaller disputes within the survivors.

Marcus had not been invited to join.

The small amount of food the hunting parties were bringing in was becoming a real problem, or it would be fairly soon. Winter was not far away, and they were low as it was. Same with medical supplies and ammunition. Abby was sure getting the supplies from Mount weather was the best solution - i_t was just there waiting for them _\- they would just have to go get it!

She looked at the three other people in the room - _the acting council_ \- an older sergeant with a gentle demeanour, everybody just called him sergeant, she didn´t even know his real name, and one of the teachers, a woman of about 40, plus Bellamy. He felt like the odd one out.

Abby starts the meeting "We need to set up an expedition to Mount Weather to get supplies before the week is out"

"What about the missing kids?" the teacher, Julie interrupted; she had known many of them when they were younger.

They had sent out several small search parties to find Monty, Jasper and the other missing 38 kids, but not even a trace or a clue had turned up. Bellamy had been part of all of them - _honestly he felt a bit responsible – _so he was relentless and even got Murphy to join a few times as he had mostly recovered. There was a silent understanding between to two former foes as they were searching through unknown parts of the forest, Murphy had been more quiet than usual after Anya´s death, and if he had anything to say it was usually some snarky comment reminiscent of the old Murphy. Bellamy didn´t mind, he had decided to not pursue their former animosity. His gut told him it was the right thing to do - they both had made mistakes. And Bellamy listened to his gut, it had proved to be right many times before. He had a feeling that the walking and change of scenery got Murphy´s mind off Anya, and that was a good thing. There had been no sight of grounders anywhere. Bellamy supposed they had decided to leave them alone. For now.

"We can´t stop looking for them, but you need enough people to carry enough stuff back, Bellamy can you make some suggestions about who to bring. You leave in two days!" Abby sounded almost desperate.

The people in this room were the only ones to know exactly how little food there was left.

**The dead zone**

They had been walking for weeks, only stopping a few days when they luckily passed a water source, no more than a small stream, but there were also some small rodents that could sustain them and prepare them for the rest of the trip.

That felt like a very long time ago.

Finn had almost given up and was ready to sit down for good when he heard Jaha shout "HEY, OVER HERE " while waving frantically. That´s when he saw them too – two people on horseback in the distance, and he started his own frantic wave. No shouting though, he had no voice left.

When he saw the horses continue towards them, and one of the figures even waived back to them Finn sank to his knees from a combination of exhaustion and share gratitude and gave out a huge sigh of relief. To his side he saw Jaha doing the same. Now he just prayed the two riders would be friendly to exhausted strangers…

**The Ark**

John Murphy was angry. He was mad at himself for not protecting Anya when it mattered and he blamed himself for her death. Even if he had somewhat proved his worth in the battle with the grounders, he was still seen as a criminal by many, he could hear them whisper behind his back. The fact that both Connor and Myles had family and friends on board the Ark did not help matters. So he didn´t really socialize much apart from the odd visit to Raven´s workshop – it was so peaceful there, made his brain stop churning about Anya for a minute – and the trips into the forest with Bellamy to search for _the 38_ as they now called them. If someone tried to engage him in some sort of conversation he mostly ignored them or answered with a frosty remark. A few confrontations even became physical and Clarke had to patch him up more than once.

Murphy was due to go on another search expedition for the 38 missing kids - they were to leave as soon as Bellamy was done with that silly council meeting. This new camaraderie with his former foe still felt a bit uneasy. And even if Murphy didn´t really show it - he welcomed this new development. Murphy had respect for Bellamy. That is why he had latched on to him in when the drop ship had first landed. He was a natural leader. And as for the whole hanging business, well tit for tat. Bellamy was right. They _were_ even.

He wanted to check what was taking so long when he heard the muttered words "murderers should float" as he passed a small group of people. Maybe it just was the last drop - _he had been in a shitty mood all day_ \- so instead of a snarky comment he launched himself at the kid he thought had uttered the insult. Before anyone could react he had punched him to the ground and was beating him. The kid wasn´t really a kid at all, all muscle and tattoos, and he soon got Murphy off him and they circled each other fists ready.

"Come on killer, let´s see what you got in a fight since you normally like to kill people in their SLEEP" The last word was emphasized with a growl and a punch to the face and Murphy suddenly made the connection. He cursed inwardly. This was Connors elder brother. Shit.

"The trial should never have been cancelled " Connor´s brother continued and with that he took out a small knife and moved in.

The fight was short. Before anyone was seriously injured a couple of the ark soldiers had put an effective stop to it with their tasers.

Soon after Murphy was sitting in the tiny room functioning as a jail nursing a small stab wound in the arm. He could feel that his face probably was a sight but mostly he was pissed. He would never get away from the murders of Connor and Myles. Not to mention Charlotte and Anya. Even if he hadn´t technically killed them they would be alive if it wasn´t for him. Any physical pain was no match with what his conscience could come up with if the let it.

**No man´s land, the woods**

Octavia and Lincoln have set up camp under the trees next to a small clearing behind a hill where no one can sneak up behind them. There is even a small cave for when the weather gets extra bad. No man´s land lived up to it´s name, they hadn´t seen any people from any of the grounder tribes.

These past few weeks had been absolutely wonderful. They were a lot closer after finally having the chance to talk about everything and nothing without some pending disaster looming over them. Octavia had not forgotten her friends - or the ark survivors – _not to mention Bellamy_ \- but dammit, it felt so good not to worry and Lincoln took her mind of all that. For now.

Lincoln insisted to teach her everything he knew and she was a willing pupil. This was earth skills: the advanced edition. Octavia loved every minute of it. As she honed her skills the nagging thought that the ark survivors could really benefit from this knowledge kept creeping up on her. She knew that the food supply was an issue already when they had left. Should they go back? As the weeks went by it was more and more difficult to discard her worry for Bellamy and the others. Lincoln instinctively understood.

He had told Octavia almost all about the grounder tribes, the key word being almost. He dedided enough was enough! Even if he knows it will cause major problems for his people he decides it is time to come clean to Octavia about what he knows about the mountain men.

She is just shocked as he expected. And slightly mad at him.

After that there is no stopping Octavia going back. Her friends needed to know about this! Bellamy needed to know!

They leave their paradise for now and after taking a few belonging they head off in the direction back to the ark.


	10. Chapter 10

**Chapter 10**

**The Ark**

Clarke was annoyed. She had just been told that Murphy had landed himself in jail and that she had to check a wound on his arm after a fight with Connor´s brother. She had not missed Murphy´s unwillingness to socialize and just general rudeness these last few weeks, but she was willing to cut him some slack, she just knew he was in a bad place. And being in a bad place she could relate to. Killing Atom, Charlotte´s death, all those grounders, she had her own struggles with guilt; she just chose not to lash out.

But also no one constantly called her a murderer behind her back.

That topped with all the glares and gestures – _the holding of the neck was always a popular one _– it was getting a bit out of hand. Because of the trial everybody knew at least some of what had happened and gossip provided the rest. She knew Bellamy had somewhat taken him under his wing and for that she was grateful. As far as Clarke was concerned Murphy had proved himself and deserved a second chance.

But even she could only take so much.

When she enters his cell sees him sitting on the floor next to s small metal bed, with a beat up face, looking miserable. Was his face ever without bruises? Clarke made a mental note.

"What the hell were you thinking" This is definitely stern Clarke

He flinches a bit at the sharp tone of voice but doesn´t answer her.

"This can´t keep happening. Did you know it was Connors brother?"

"Not at first"

"He shouldn´t call you out like that but hell Murphy, you should cut Connor and Myles´ families some slack. Just ignore the comments for heavens sake. We have more important things to worry about". She was pleased that Murphy looked somewhat sheepish. "Now let´s have a look at that arm"

As she gave him a couple of small stiches to keep the wound close Bellamy suddenly walked in.

"Hey, is this jail some sort of open house?" Murphy tried to sound offended but honestly he didn´t mind at all. Jail was excruciatingly dull and these were the two people in camp he liked the most. Trusted them too. When did that happen?

"Shut it jailbird, I managed to persuade Abby that it is a good idea for you come with us on the Mount Weather expedition. I want you there, so are you interested? Were leaving the day after tomorrow: me, Clarke, Raven, Monroe and You"

Murphy didn´t even have to think about it.

**Raven´s workshop, the ark. **

Raven looked again at the note from Finn – _she didn´t have the heart to throw it out yet _– but she was less than pleased with how easily he had been duped by Jaha. That´s dreamers for you, and Finn had always been a dreamer. He was an idealist, but also somewhat naïve. Raven took pride in being the opposite. She had been the cynic in the relationship, but not so cynical as to throw out the note. Her own sentiment annoyed her.

The note was long, more than two pages. Finn had never been able to keep it short. But even with all the fancy words the message was simple. He didn´t believe in survival in the camp in the long run so they needed another solution and that was the City of light. They, Finn and Jaha would find a brave new world and then come back for them. He finished with - I_ love you, see you again_ soon! - But Raven just didn´t believe it anymore.

Finn had always loved his idealism more than her.

There was a knock on the door and Murphy peered his battered face in - "what, another fight", Raven thought, but decided to leave it. They had seen quite a bit of each other. Murphy enjoyed both Raven´s companionship and the seclusion of the workshop. He had been a regular visitor the last few weeks and it didn´t take an expert to figure out that he used it as a hiding spot so he didn't´ need to see anyone. She didn´t mind at all, and even started to look forward to his visits.

"Heard you´re coming on the expedition to Mount Weather? Sure that´s a good idea?" He actually sounded worried.

Murphy had grown on Raven, after Anya she just saw him in a different way - and compared to Finns earnestness his sarcasm actually felt fresh. She knew it was just a façade anyway. She had seen the other side to him. And now he was nowhere near sarcastic. Lately he had been bordering on overprotective and it bothered the hell out of Raven.

"It´s already been decided, I´m helping out with opening any electronic doors, starting the power systems etc. Remember, Mount Weather has been shut down for more than a 100 years. They need my help. How do you know about the trip anyway, Bellamy told me it is on the down-low, only need-to-know"

"Well", Murphy smirked. "I´m going too, so at least there´s that."

**The Ark camp entrance – two days later**

They were ready to go. The food situation was getting dire or would be in a couple of weeks The council had decided that all search parties for the missing kids would cease until the expedition got back. The energy that was left in the group needed to be used hunting. They hunting parties would just have to look for the missing kids at the same time. Abby didn´t have a lot of hope, there had been no trace of them for weeks.

The plan was to send a small group consisting of Clarke, Bellamy, Raven, Monroe and surprise guest Murphy. He was a bit of a loose cannon but Clarke had convinced her that he would be valuable, and Abby really had no arguments, and agreed to let him out of jail. She trusted her daughter´s opinion.

The group had gathered at the entrance of the camp and the woods were looking ominous in the distance. The plan was to gain access into Mount Weather, take stock of everything that was stored there and bring back the essentials: food and ammunition. There had been no grounder activity for weeks but Abby couldn´t help but feel that this was the calm before the storm.

She looked at the group of kids - _she supposed they weren´t kids anymore_, survivors was a more apt term – and felt a pang of pride. These so-called criminals had proved themselves and more. Her own daughter had serious medical capabilities and was tough as nails. Raven was a technical wiz with her head in the right place. Bellamy was the natural leader; he had quickly sailed up as her second in command. Monroe was a tough cookie, she had heard rumours that she had been part of the rumoured child fighting rings on the ark, and her close combat skills were second to almost none. Murphy was the odd one out in this group, but he had proved himself a good fighter in the battle with the grounders. Because of his frequent visits to the infirmary she had seen quite a bit of him and she had reached the same conclusion as Clarke, he deserves a second change. To be honest she felt her maternal instincts go into overdrive. Had this boy ever been loved by anyone?

She was taken out of her thoughts by the cheers from the crowd that had decided to see the Mount Weather group off. The secret was out. Although most people in the camp thought the trek mainly was for medical supplies and ammunition, they had managed to keep the food situation under wraps.

She hugs her daughter warmly and doesn´t want to think about the grounders they haven´t heard from in weeks

"Take care of yourselves," she whispers to herself as the small group leaves the camp and walks into the darkness of the forest.


	11. Chapter 11

Chapter 11

**A small settlement, the dead zone**

Finn tried to look on the positive side. At least they weren´t thirsty anymore. Everything else was definitely lacking. They were kept as prisoners in a small tent, although not tied up. But there was a guard outside though. After their swift capture by the two men on horses – _they didn´t look like grounders_ \- they had just been locked up and told nothing. But they _were_ given two large buckets of water and some food which gave Finn a small hope that they wouldn´t just be killed.

A sinking feeling that this dream of the city of light was not the answer he was hoping for had entered his mind

He missed Raven.

**The woods, close to Mount Weather**

"Let´s take a moment and make a plan, I have a bad feeling that there could be booby traps or at least some reinforcements at the entrances, there was a lot to protect here!" Bellamy took his leadership role seriously. No one disagreed.

They had spotted a side entrance, and Raven could se the small opening mechanism with the binoculars. "I can make that one work", she said to no one in particular. "We can use the panel on the outside to hack the code, we just need to let the computer try the combinations, just give me 30 minutes"

And so it was. Monroe snuck up to the panel controlling the electronic door and used brute force to yank it open and plugged in the wire Raven gave her. Murphy was standing next to her, it was frustrating not being able to help, but Monroe sure had this one. She was a tough one.

There was something eerily familiar about Monroe, but he couldn´t place it yet. He was sure they had known other on the Arc before they were put in the sky box. That was not a good thing.

He had a suspicion exactly who she was but didn´t want to go that place in his mind. The life as a child fighter on the ark was not something he had shared with anyone. He was not proud of what he had done. After his mothers death he was acting out and fighting a lot with anyone and everyone. Someone noticed.

The ark space stations didn´t really have sports. What they had were illegal child fighting rings, almost irresistible to many of the inhabitants used to the dull existence on the ark. A ten-year-old grief-stricken Murphy was an easy target as a fighting prospect.

He was a natural.

After fighting his way up he had as a twelve-year old hardened "veteran" been made somewhat of a leader. He was increasingly sure Monroe was the fledgling whose life he had made miserable. Hell, he had only wanted the girl to make it. But when he though about the way he had done it. He shuddered at the thought, he wouldn´t have wished that on anyone.

"Fuck!" He is brought out of his thought by Raven cursing in annoyance "It´s not reponding!"

She is having problems with the hack, the door isn´t budging. The group are looking at her for answers. But she just doesn´t have them. The encryption is more difficult than she imagined.

But suddenly the door opens wide. Raven looks puzzled at the others and gestures "It wasn´t me".

They don´t really believe her until they jaws drop in unison. There are two people walking out of Mount Weather in hazmat suits. They obviously are not grounders. Who are they? There should not be any survivors at Mount Weather, they hadn´t even considered it.

The two people wave in their direction.

_a/n_

_I have changed a more spelling mistakes and plot inconsistencies in previous chapters. If you see more…feel free to let me know. I don´t have a beta reader. _

_The plot bunny about child fighting rings comes from another fic; hope it´s ok to "borrow" it. It won´t be the main plot line. It´s from this story: _

_ s/11099507/1/Love-and-Wounds-and-Flowers-and-Thorns  
_


	12. Chapter 12

Chapter 12

**Inside Mount Weather, the dining room**

The sky kids couldn´t believe their eyes – _or their bellies_. Clarke, Bellamy, Raven, Murphy and Monroe were currently sitting in a large room at the head of a grand dining table filled with tantalisingly delicious items like meat and pies and more importantly bread and cake. Those had been total luxury items on the ark. No one had had a taste of anything resembling cake since they landed on this godforsaken place so there had been no hesitation at the first bites. And it was fantastic cake! Murphy sighed in content as he ate another piece.

He took in his surroundings.

After getting somewhat over the initial shock of meeting people instead of an empty storage facility, they had been led down a series of tunnels and corridors – _this place seemed huge_ \- they had arrived here. The room was large compared to what they had been used to in the ark, but it was also a lot more homely. There were paintings and flowers! Sofas and Pianos!

A young girl with dark hair, she introduced herself as Maya, had brought them all the delicious food. Murphy had wanted to ask her about this place but got the distinct feeling that that was not a good idea. She seemed afraid of him.

The room was packed with people. The group from the ark were clearly the main attraction; everyone was staring. Murphy couldn´t blame them. In between bites of cake they were staring right back, and the atmosphere was tense. Murphy could tell his friends – if could he call them that – were also sceptical.

Suddenly there was a little commotion by one of the doors when a small group of people entered and made their way through the crowd towards them. It was a thin, but strong-looking older man and a frowning, dark haired younger plus two guards.

"Here we go" Murphy said to no one in particular. He just knew that this place was giving him the creeps.

The old man was clearly in charge. "Hope you are enjoying your meal. Welcome to the proud community here at Mount Weather. My name is Dante and I am the leader here. We are peaceful survivors of the nuclear apocalypse and have stayed here for the past 100 years, growing our own food, schooling our children, making art and developing science to ensure survival of both mind and body. We were most surprised when someone "knocked" on our door" He mimes the quotation marks. "We normally have no contact with the people on the outside, but we could just tell you weren´t with them. So who are you?"

The old man seems curious while the younger man with the frown continues to glare. As they both grin, Murphy involuntarily shrugs; these guys were creepy!

As he was waiting for his group to reply, Murphy wondered if the old man believed his own bullshit. He sure didn´t. This little speech should score high on anyone´s bullshit detector. He looked at the others. He saw that Clarke was not impressed, neither was Bellamy or Raven. He couldn´t tell with Monroe, she was difficult to read – had been even back then – he thought. Had she recognized him? Their names had been different, and they were a lot younger. But still, Murphy had a nagging feeling she knew very well who he was and what he had done. After all, _he_ recognized _her_.

He was brought out of his little inner rant from his past by the old man´s popping open another wine bottle, Clarke had started to explain about the ark and the 100 people sent to investigate the survivability of post-apocalypse earth. She skips the delinquent part. Clever, Murphy thinks.

**The Ark. **

The Mount Weather expedition had been gone a few days and Abby was antsy. She was worried about her daughter, but she had also started to understand the level of her daughter's capabilities so she tries to force herself not to worry.

Instead she focuses on camp Jaha, there is enough to worry about! She is especially concerned that the grounders will sense their vulnerability when some of their top fighters are not in camp. It is a bit scary how much they depend on Clarke, Bellamy and Raven for military tactics, not to mention Murphy and Monroe for basic shooting and combat abilities.

Well, she isn´t her daughter´s mother for nothing so she decides to do something about that vulnerability. She gives Sergeant, the mild-mannered but experienced soldier the task of training more people to fight. And if an attack comes, he would be their commanding officer. He had gone at the task with surprising fervour. Abby was impressed. Maybe he wasn´t as mild mannered as she had initially thought he was. But however many hours were put in, making these people learn to fight was not done overnight. Would the grounders be so patient?

Hopefully they would not be attacked before the others were back.

**Mount Weather**

Murphy is suspicious. He does not trust this Dante fellow one bit, and decides to leave their little group under the pretence that he feels sick from all the eating of cake and needs to lie down. Both Clarke and Raven look at him a bit strangely but they both nod and Raven even says "feel better" as he leaves.

He is thankful that nobody follows. There are no guards around - _they must trust that we won´t misbehave _– He chuckles to himself. Instead of heading to the room he had been assigned he walks back towards some of the corridors he wanted to explore some more. After a few minutes he thinks he hears a man screaming in the distance. He can´t help getting an uneasy feeling but of course he walks in that direction.

He tries to move as stealthily as possible, the hum of the mountain´s power source makes his steps drown in a steady noise. Unfortunately this also means that he does not hear the two guards entering the very same hallway and before he has time to react they grab him from behind. Murphy struggles the best he can, and gets a dozen of heavy blows and kicks for the effort before one guard manages to hit him hard on the head with his baton and everything goes black.

**Mount Weather**

Inside the dining hall the atmosphere is still somewhat tense but loosening up as Clarke, Bellamy, Raven and Monroe socialize with the inhabitants of Mount Weather. They where a surprisingly diverse bunch, Raven thought to her.

The girl who had been serving them, Maya, had been amiably chatting to Monroe for more than an hour. Flirting more like, Raven smiled to herself. She had always expected that Monroe had a soft spot for girls.

Well, good on her, Raven thinks while wondering if she should check up on Murphy´s condition. She suspects that the whole eating-too-much-bit is not the whole story-

The inhabitants living in Mount Weather were not exactly used to meeting new people – there were infants born but they just didn´t count. This was the very first time they had visitors and Maya couldn´t believe that she was sitting here chatting to a girl her own age – who was from somewhere else than this bloody bunker! Maya had made sure that she would be the one to serve them, and she instantly wanted to talk to the girl with the braids. The others seemed older and scarier. Especially that one guy with all those scars!

It felt great! Her and Monroe talked mostly about the outside world. Maya had never been after all. But she noticed that however much different their backgrounds where she could relate to Monroe and she could feel a connection with the girl from the sky. As she looked at Monroe explaining about the beautiful lake close to the ark her heart fluttered a bit. She wanted to help these people

She had already started to feel guilty about what she knew. Maybe it was the newfound feelings or an inherent sense of justice but Maya had already decided to share what she knew about their missing friends. No matter the consequences.

Out of the corner of her eye she could see Dante´s son watching them


	13. Chapter 13

**Chapter 13. **

**Mount Weather**

"I need to tell you something important" Maya suddenly looks very serious. They had been bonding, chatting – _almost flirting _\- this serious tone seems like it comes out of nowhere. Monroe is a bit startled but nods.

"Your friends are here at the mountain!" Monroe is shocked but at the same time elated. They were alive! And not captured by the grounders. Monty and Jasper! They had also known her from before, from the ark when they were younger. The two of them had even been with Murphy in the pits before he became their feared trainer. She can´t wait to see them.

She gives Maya´s arm a gentle squeeze and waits for her to continue. Nobody´s watching.

"They are kept in lockup for now" Maya explains the location in detail before she continues "Our people are not immune to the radiation levels on the ground. That is why we never go outside. Dr Tsing and the leaders here believe that your friends´ bone marrow is the solution" She looks down. "I´m….sorry"

Monroe´s initial joy at knowing where her friends were had evaporated in a blink of an eye. She needed to tell Clarke. She made sure Maya understands how grateful she is before she switches seats and quietly explains to their leader what she has learned.

Clarke relays the information to Bellamy and Raven and they all agree quickly on their best option. They need to escape. And them make a plan to rescue their friends.

During the rest of the dinner they are all keeping up appearances, thanking for the food, and after some more pleasantries they are left alone in their new quarters.

They immediately start planning for their escape. Clarke takes charge, and takes out the map. She has already studied it and memorized a way back to where Maya had explained they came in. They would get out the same way. To bring 48 additional people with them now was just too risky. It broke her heart to leave them there but Maya explained that they were not harmed yet. Clarke believed the young girl with the honest eyes, and she also knew they would be back for them. For now they just needed to get out without anyone noticing.

Raven can hack the door leading into the tunnels, but where is Murphy? Raven is worried. He has been gone several hours and he she was sure his bed had not been slept in. She voices her concern.

"Do you think he was here at all?" Clarke wonders out loud.

"No. I bet he was off snooping around or something"

Bellamy sighs. He had thought the same thing. Ever since all the _troubles_ Murphy had wanted to prove himself to the group. Prove he had a purpose and a reason to be there. The group had shared the feeling that something was off as they arrived at the mountain. And Bellamy just knew that Murphy´s curiosity got the better of him.

They at least had to _try_ to find him.

Clarke and Bellamy study the map they had been given one more time. "What about here" Bellamy suddenly says and points to an area of the map that they hadn´t really looked at much "it looks like a dead end but logically it shouldn´t be, I think we should check it out."

"It´s worth a shot" Clarke states and so the decision is made. Even if Murphy wasn´t there she wanted to know as much as possible of Mount Weather´s secrets before they left. Especially since they now had an escape route, and no one suspected yet. She must also admit that they owe Murphy that much. "Murphy is one of us now". She surprises herself by saying it out loud

Monroe mutters something under her breath but Clarke doesn´t hear it. Bellamy does though. "One of us, my ass", Monroe looks pissed. Bellamy isn´t John Murphy´s biggest fan, but still, if he had forgiven him, why couldn´t Monroe. Was there something more to that story? This was no time to dwell on it now though, the lights had gone off for the evening and the mountain was quiet. It is time to go!

**Storage room, Mount Weather**

Murphy slowly comes to, he feels sore as hell and his head is pounding. After a minute he manages to keep his eyes open long enough to get an idea where he is. It is a metal cage, not much larger than a couple of meters across. Shit! He curses inwardly. It feels familiar. Not in a good way.

But this was no grounder camp.

The main part of the room is stacked with the same type of cages as he is in. Most of them have occupants; they all seem dazed. Grounders, he thought, but why lock them up?

His head is killing him. Those guards had really gone for it. He touches his face and feel the dried blood, and his nose is a mess, probably broken. He winces as his fingers touches the still bleeding wound at the back of his head. He feels lightheaded. You need to stop the bleeding, his instincts tell him, but he is too disoriented to care. His head drops, he closes his eyes and lets the darkness claim him.


	14. Chapter 14

_**a/n** I made some small changes to chapters 1, 2, 3 and 13 to fix some spelling + a couple of plot holes. (there are more, I know..)_

Chapter 14.

**The Ark. **

The Ark camp looks the same hadn´t it been for the new wired up fences that some of the engineers had set up. She even thinks she can hear the electric hum. Octavia decides the best option is to just go in through the front door. They had both agreed that Lincoln should wait in the dark of the trees – just in case.

There were two guards at the front entrance. Octavia could see she had been spotted so she waves but continues to move forward. The guards keep their guns pointing at her but as soon as she expects them to shout stop – _or shoot _\- one of them wave back. She had been recognized. Octavia instantly go to search for Bellamy.

She doesn´t find Bellamy but soon runs into Abby and is rewarded with the information that Bellamy is not there, but on an expedition to Mount Weather to get supplies. Octavia´s heart drops. Abby can tell something is up "Clarke has also gone to Mount Weather, what´s wrong? "; her voice is filled with anxiety.

"We need to save them from there" Octavia almost shouts" There are people living at Mount Weather and they are NOT friendly. Lincoln says the grounders call them the mountain men, and they have kidnapped hundreds of their people"

Abby is so shocked she can´t bring herself to reply.

**Mount Weather**

They had been exploring the corridors for a few minutes, but now the little group consisting of Clarke, Bellamy, Raven and Monroe were at a dead end – to the side a locked door made of steel. After some useless plundering to get it open Clarke spots a guard doing his rounds. Thankfully she sees him first and manages to signal the others before they are spotted. "Let´s take his key card so we can check a bit further" she whispers to the group. She has a feeling Murphy is close. Bellamy steps up behind the guard, knocks him out and suddenly they are up one gun and one key card.

Raven takes the key card and opens the metal door and the first thing that hits is the pungent stench of human suffering and hey can hear painful moans and the rattling of cages. They are looking into the storage room from hell.

As their eyes adjust to the light they are shocked. There are cages filled with what appear to be grounders. Must be more than a hundred! What to do? The group quickly confer and come to a decision. Heartless as it is they can´t save them all right now. They would just have to be quick and see if Murphy was in one of the cages. They spread out and start searching the cages.

Raven is disgusted and pissed off at what she sees. No one deserves this kind of treatment. Not grounders and not her people. What was going on here? Did Lincoln know about this treatment?

Raven can se some dark hair sticky with blood poke out of the cage to her left, away from the main stack. She recognizes him instantly. He lies awkwardly in a puddle of blood with his back to the wall, head leaning against the side of the cage. He looks totally out of it. She shouts and rattles his cage "Murphy!" He doesn´t move a muscle, but she sees his steady breathing and breathes her own sigh of relief. At least he is alive.

Monroe has started to work on opening the lock to Murphy´s cage. She can´t believe that he was one of the 100 juveniles sent to earth – she would have expected him to be dead by then. It´s not like she has forgotten – or forgiven – the horrible things he did to her while she was one of the top fighters on his team back on the ark. But as she sees him now – in a state she many times had wanted to see him in – she didn´t feel rage as much as pity - and sadness at both their pasts. There! She manages to pry the lock open. Raven and Bellamy drag him gently out so that Clarke can look him over. She has already determined that the head wound is the most serious and he probably has a concussion. The question was how much blood he had lost. "We should wake him up, he has a concussion for sure"

Raven leans in over Murphy, winces at the sight of him but shakes him gently "you need to wake up" and amazingly he opens his eyes with a moan. "These people are not what they say" he manages to get out in a panic. "We know, we know, relax" Raven reassures him "but right now we only need to get out as soon as possible"

Clarke has been examining Murphy some more and the head wound is deep but not life threatening. That he woke up is a very good sign. "Let´s go"

It is still dark in the corridors and they manage to get back to where they had come in. With the key card Raven didn´t even have to hack the door. Murphy walks unsteadily between Bellamy and Clarke, but at least he is awake. He manages to stay awake almost until they make it back to camp. They carry him the last mile or so.


	15. Chapter 15

**Chapter 15**

**The Ark **

To say that the atmosphere amongst the survivors in the ark is tense is putting it mildly. The fact that there were people inside Mount weather – and that the kids had been sent straight into some sort of trap – put everybody on edge. Wasn't the threat from the grounders and the elements enough!

Abby worries about Clarke and the others, and has called a meeting with the remaining members of the council, Julie and Sergeant. After some debate they decide to increase the watch duty, this was no time to be surprised by grounders. The new recruits sergeant had trained had better weapon skills now, including ones who had never touched a gun before. But even if they were better prepared, they couldn´t agree on a tactic for liberating the kids. In the end Abby takes on the acting chancellor hat and forces the decision that she is to lead a group to try to negotiate with the people at Mount Weather. She does not want bloodshed if she could avoid it.

She walks to the mess hall to ask for volunteers. Lincoln and Octavia are waiting for her. They have new information, and it is not good.

The current rescue plan is quickly discarded as Lincoln explains what he knows about the mountain men – _the grounders´ name for them_ \- and their methods. Drugs, reapers, blood, and prisoners - it almost sounded to gruesome to be true.

"Why haven´t you fought them"

"They have guns and poisoned gas while we have spears and swords. Even if we outnumber them 100 to 1 they are able to overpower us and we wouldn´t stand a chance. Lexa, our commander, had to agree to a deal so they wouldn´t slaughter all of us. They get to keep a certain amount of our people for experimenting on in exchange for them leaving the rest of us alone"

"But why" Abby needs to know. Her daughter was there!

"The leaders in Mount Weather are desperate to be able to go outside without protective gear and are convinced that our blood is the solution. I bet your missing people are there too. I know for a fact that Lexa despises both the deal and the Mountain men, but until now there has been no other solution" He looks at Octavia.

Octavia sees that Lincoln is thinking what she is thinking and she cuts in. "So if the grounders and the Ark can work together – that can be a new solution, right? We have guns after all. And with your manpower we might be able to take them and free your people for good".

It might be a long shot but Abby realizes it this is probably the best - _if not the only_ \- plan of action if she wants to see her daughter again. So now they only have to get Lexa and the grounder leaders to agree to cooperate with the people who were responsible for the deaths of several of their people. And then they had to make a plan together. Easy-peasy…

**The Ark entrance**

Finally! They were here. Bellamy was exhausted from basically carrying Murphy most of the way. Not that he minded - he wanted to help. Ever since the trial and the last battle with the grounders he had unwittingly become an honorary member of the let´s-redeem-Murphy gang. Clarke and Raven seem to already be members. Monroe, on the other hand, was definitely not a member, even if she also helped get them back to the Ark in more or less one piece.

The guards at the entrance wanted to ask where the supplies and extra food was - _they all missed some food favourites_ – but when they saw they state of the gang stumbling from the forests edge they quickly led them through the barrier by the main entrance. People were staring but not really approaching them. Strange, Raven thought to herself.

"Get him to the infirmary, I´ll get my mom" Clarke wastes no time and in a second she is gone into another part of the Ark. She has a feeling her mom will be in the mess hall or the room they use for council meetings. She wants to be the one who breaks the news about what Mount Weather really is, and she wants her to take another look at Murphy´s condition. Head wounds are tricky to diagnose properly.

She finds her with Octavia and Lincoln – _of all people_ \- in the mess hall.

Abby sees Clarke and almost doubles over in shock. She can´t help the tears flowing and she has to sit down as her daughter bends down and gives her a long hug. "Mom" Clarke whispers and gives in to the secure feeling of hugging her mom again. "I thought you were captured and maybe dead," Abby says through the tears.

Captured, why could her mom know about that? "So you already know that there are people living in the mountain. And that they have our people captured as well as hundreds of grounders"

"I told them", Lincoln explains. Octavia gives Clarke a warm welcome back hug while Abby tells Clarke of the plan they have made.

Mother and daughter walk together to the infirmary.

**The infirmary, The Ark.**

Murphy is awake. Abby does a quick exam and concludes like her daughter. He has a fairly severe concussion and general bruising. "So doctor, what´s the verdict?" he asks her without really looking at her. It comes out more pleading than he intended. "How long do I have to stay here this time?"

"Well Mr Murphy, you are the most injured-prone person I have ever met, but you´ll live this time round also". Abby gives him a reassuring smile. After she has gotten to know him more she likes Murphy. She just knows that there is a decent guy under all that bravado.

"You´ll need a few days of rest though, this type of head injuries needs some time before all nausea and dizziness is gone"

Murphy nods, he _was_ feeling dizzy and had been all day.

"I spoke to Clarke about what happened to you, that can´t have been a fun experience" Murphy looks down but doesn´t speak, he doesn´t want Clarke´s mom to see how panic inducing that whole thing was. He tried to keep his suddenly erratic breathing under control. If he could help it he would never be in a cage ever again. It reminded him of being back in the Ark, in the pits. He would never forget that feeling.

Even if she really wants to know, Abby doesn´t want to push the obviously traumatized boy. He didn´t have to revisit it right now. She could ask one of the other kids.

Bellamy, Raven and Clarke are relieved that the prognosis is good. They have been listening to the exchange between doctor and patient from the other side of the room. The adrenaline from the day is wearing off and they are all knackered. Monroe had not followed them to the infirmary. She is hopefully already sleeping, Raven thinks. One day she would get to the bottom of whatever the issue between Murphy and Monroe was. Bellamy had mentioned it also which made it extra easy to pick up on. It was like a quiet animosity, she was sure they had a history!


	16. Chapter 16

**Chapter 16**

**The infirmary, the Ark. **

Raven decides to stay as Murphy recovers - _he needs a friend_ \- she decides. His head is bandaged up and he sleeps peacefully. Abby had said that she needed to wake him up every two hours. It seems cruel but she knew it was necessary. "Murphy, you with me" She gently nudges him. "Just say yes, and that you know who you are, where you are, and then you can sleep"

He opens his eyes and gives her a loopy smile. "Do you know who you are?"

Ok, so the painkillers are working, Abby had explained about that "Just go back to sleep Murphy" Raven surprises herself by stroking his hair as he drifted off.

**Raven´s workshop**

Clarke and Bellamy decide to avoid the crowds and head to Raven´s workshop. She would be with Murphy and they knew she wouldn´t mind. They both welcome the quiet. They sit next to each other, fingers almost touching. Clarke decides to talk shop before this gets out of hand. "So, what do you think about collaborating with the grounders?" The question comes out of nowhere. Bellamy´s mind had been somewhere completely different; something about warm skin and blonde hair. He looks at her before he answers. She shivers.

"I think it is our best option. We have the same goal. They have the manpower and we have the weapons. Win-win"

He doesn´t sound like he thinks it´s a win though. He takes her hand and she doesn´t remove it. "We´ll make it" she says and kisses him on the cheek. The air feels electric.

Olivia had noticed them sneaking away from the crowd and is secretly pleased. Clarke was just what her brother needs.

**2 days later, the Ark. **

Murphy has recovered quickly and is already up and about. The catch. He is under strict orders from Abby to take it easy. He is pleased to discover that since their trip to Mount Weather most of the survivors seemed to have warmed to him. For once, people actually talked to him. He could get used to this. Without noticing he was having whole conversations without a single sarcastic remark. That was new.

He and Raven had been seeing a lot of each other. He really enjoyed the mechanics´ company. She had accepted his apology for shooting her and it hadn´t been a topic since. He still felt guilty about it, but for now he just wanted to enjoy his new found popularity and Raven´s attention. Her looks had not escaped him but it was her wit and sense of humour he really liked.

Murphy almost felt back to his old self, or even better. Felt good to not hurt anywhere for once. But every time he saw his own reflection the scars were a constant reminder of what he had done. Raven didn´t seem to mind though. They actually laughed together. He couldn't remember the last time he laughed.

Bellamy is pleased. Murphy and Raven is a good match. Their sarcasm and outlook on life bounced well off each other. Lately they also seemed to connect on a deeper level. He always thought Finn was too earnest for her. That boy could out-earnest the best of them. Honestly, Bellamy had always found him a bit boring. At least you couldn´t call Murphy boring.

**The next day**

It had been decided that Octavia and Lincoln would take a group to negotiate with the grounders about collaborating against the mountain men. Bellamy and Clarke, who had emerged as the de facto leaders of the survivors – _Abby was OK with that_ – would head the group, while Murphy, Raven and Monroe would join them.

OK, here we go again, Murphy thought as the small group left the Ark and ventured into the wood

**The Woods**

Lincoln has explained that Lexa´s camp is a two-day trek away. They have walked for about half a day when Murphy asks for a break. "Hey, I thought you were cleared from medical for this trip" Monroe looks at him accusingly.

"Give him a break, we could all use a breather" Raven replies before Murphy gets a chance to. "20 minutes" Clarke decides, "let´s all eat some of the provisions, we all need some energy"

The rest of the day is relentless. Raven can see that Murphy is struggling with the pace but he is not complaining. She decides to let it rest. They will camp soon anyway.

Bellamy spots a clearing next to a creek and they set up camp. Bellamy and Monroe have gone off to gather firewood. She has no idea where Octavia and Lincoln are. They had been keeping to themselves all day.

Raven and Murphy sit away from the fire, Clarke can see them talking quietly. They look close. She doesn´t want to stare, but there is nothing else to look at.

She can hear that they suddenly stop talking and she can´t look away as Murphy tilts Raven´s head and leans in for a kiss. Clarke decides enough is enough and leaves to find Bellamy.

Bellamy and Monroe are both balancing a bundle of newly cut wood as they head back to camp. They had been chatting amiably the whole time, Monroe seems in a good mood. Bellamy decides to chance it. "So, how come you still dislike Murphy so much, you have history or something?"

Monroe stops and drops her bundle on the ground "Who told you!?"

"No one. Doesn´t take a genius to figure out something is up"

Monroe looks straight at Bellamy, her face determined. "OK…." Her voice falters a bit then gains strength. "We knew each other on the Ark, before the sky box. Both of us were orphans. I met him after I was kidnapped by one of my moms old buddies" Monroe takes a breath. "Murphy was the leader of a team of children, trained for the pit fights. He was the one who trained me to fight. Even if he only was 3 years older than me, there was no child left in him, believe me. I haven´t forgotten how he treated me"

Bellamy is shocked at this new information. He had heard rumours of these pit fights. He could almost see a young Murphy sneering in the ring. It explained so much. But they all had a past. And no one came out on top of a grudge.

"And no one is asking you to forget. But he has changed. I´m sure you´ve noticed too. I´m sorry that happened to you and I´m sure he deserves your hate. But if he can try to change maybe you can too"

Bellamy´s voice is steady. He likes the big brother role. After all he had some practice. He gives her a long hug and Monroe seems to be in deep thought.

Just then Clarke turns up looking a bit bemused at the situation. Bellamy just smiles at her and shakes his head.

**Lexa´s village**

The group enters the grounder village around sundown the next day. The trek had been exhausting but now the real struggle started. They had been expecting a rough welcome but when the villagers recognise Lincoln no one touches them. Lincoln asks if they can see the commander.

Well, at least no one touches them until Tristan arrives - _he was still alive?_ \- and sees Murphy. Tristan had not forgotten that the boy had provided the false information that had caused his son´s death. He had wanted to kill him then, but Anya had stopped him. So they had just left him tied to a tree. Not to mention the second time! Well, that was then, this time he would get his chance.

Tristan knew that Lexa had cared for his son, almost as much as he did. This would be easy.

"Murderer" he cries out as Lexa walks up to them, two seconds in tow. He points to a confused Murphy "He killed my son."

Not again, Murphy thinks. He looks terrified. Raven grabs his arm.

"When we were at battle he didn't tell us about the mines. Those mines killed my boy. I told you about this, Commander!"

"Indeed you did" Lexa looks sternly at the group "You said Anya let him go. Well, now that he is here he has to pay for his crime. Put him in our jail, we will decide his fate later"

"Can I do the honour, you honour" Tristan sports a frightening smile. Lexa nods.

Tristan knocks Murphy out with one punch and carries him to a fortified hut at the back of the village.

Great start to the negotiations, team! Clarke sighs to herself.


	17. Chapter 17

**Chapter 17**

**Lexa´s village**

After that whole debacle Lexa looks at Lincoln and points to a large tent. "Now we can talk".

Like Clarke suspected, Lexa has been waiting for a chance to get out of the deal since they day she made it. The commander listens with a supposedly blank face but Clarke can see the intensity in her eyes. By the time they have laid out their case, and explained about the trip into the Mountain Lexa has already decided.

"We will fight with you," she says formally. Clarke extends her hand for a handshake, which Lexa accepts. She continues, "We need to train both of our people. Yours in close combat skills and mine with your weapons. We leave tomorrow"

"It´s a deal" Clarke says. She would ask about Murphy´s release later.

**The Ark**

Two days later and they were back at the Ark. A large group of grounders were with them, men and women, their best fighters. More would join later. Murphy, unfortunately, was not allowed to join; he was still in the jail back at Lexa´s village. Raven hoped he was OK. That Tristan guy surely had some pull with the Commander. She was sure he was behind the decision. Where was the huge grounder warrior anyway, she hoped he wasn´t back at the village with Murphy.

After a quick meal, the first one as one group, the training starts immediately. Clarke is impressed with how well the two factions work together, the grounders and her sky people. There is combat training and shooting practice everywhere, the camp is practically buzzing. She sees Monroe expertly tackling a large grounder and then making short of their fight with a knife to his throat. Clarke´s mouth hung open. "Wow" she says, "I knew you were a damn good fighter Monroe but, just wow"

"Thanks Clarke" Monroe looks proud while she helps the grounder to his feet.

**The next day**

A smaller group had also been teaching hunting and general earth skills. They had to learn about traps, seasons, game, fishing techniques, what mushrooms were poisonous, what berries to eat when, which wood made the best fires and which plant to use for what. And that was just he beginning. Abby was sure this was the end of their food shortage. The timing couldn´t have been better, their food supply was almost non-existent.

Lexa looks around at the organized camp. She is impressed with Clarke´s ability to lead. It was different than her method but just as effective. Her people also would follow her through anything, Lexa was sure of it. She is pleased with the bustling activity. But they need more than battle training. They need a good plan. Lexa needs to sit down with Clarke. The girl in question is intently watching a young girl take on one of her best fighters – and winning. She should take on Tristan in a training fight. Where was he anyway? She hadn´t seen her best _– and meanest_ \- warrior since yesterday. Ever since the death of the little boy he had been a bit off. Maybe he just needed some space.

Clarke sees Bellamy and waves him over. "Finished with todays training session?" She could see on his clothes that he had been fighting. "Nope, just taking a little break" He gives her a broad smile.

Clarke points at the fight going on in front of them

"Did you know Monroe is one of the best fighters here? And that includes most of the grounders. That girl has some skills. I should take classes from her"

"Well, then you could just as well take classes from Murphy " Bellamy answers making Clarke look confused. He quickly adds, "He was her trainer or leader or something back on the Ark. She fought in the child fighting rings and so did he. You know, the pits that were parts of those illegal betting dens there were so much talk about."

"What!" Clarke takes it in. "That explains a lot"

"My thoughts exactly"

"I know my mom had to patch up kids that seemed to come out of nowhere. She knew she should have reported it but she just couldn´t turn away children who needed her help. Honestly, I always admired her for it. How much do you know, what did Monroe tell you? They were there together? "

"Yes, but Murphy was there first, so when Monroe was kidnapped and brought into the fold it was Murphy who trained her. Of course this was not run by the kids, I know that, but Monroe mostly dealt with Murphy who she described as a bastard having no child left in him"

Clarke feels a chill in her spine, what a life that must have been.

"Jasper and Monty were there too, but she said they were never mean like Murphy had been. I´m nor sure she can forgive him"

Clarke thinks about it.

"I hope she can. I´ll talk to Murphy when he gets back" _if he get´s back_. The thought nudges at the back of her mind but she won´t go there. "You say he trained her. Well, her abilities are the reason she survived those pits. I´m not excusing what he did but maybe he felt he had to, to protect her, make her survive the fights and to survive himself"

Bellamy just nods, he had the same thought.

**Lexa´s village**

The village is quiet, as most of the inhabitants have gone with Clarke and Lexa to the Ark. The people left are mostly, women, children and older people. They were very few old people and Murphy noticed that they were treated with the utmost respect. He suspected growing old was not a common occurrence in a grounder´s life.

He was still in jail but no worse for wear. He was treated with respect. They gave him food and drink, took him to the bathroom and gave him a cot to sleep on. His wrists were bound with shackles but he had a meter or so of moving radius. Could there be a chance that this would just blow over. He should be so lucky.

He missed Raven. That kiss was the beginning of something and here he was and could do nothing about it.

He could hear commotion outside the tent and then the last person Murphy wanted to see enters, a very angry-looking Tristan storms up to him and shouts in his face,

"Like it here in your cushy little jail, your murderer. If it were up to me you would be back in the cage with no fingernails" Murphy can fell his breath he is so close.

"I didn´t kill you son, and I´m sorry you think I did." Murphy starts but is abruptly stopped by a fist to the face, he can feel his lip burst at the massive blow and he doubles over in pain,

"No talking! Lexa has ordered not to kill you but accidents can always happen" The large man sneers and picks Murphy up to hit him again.


	18. Chapter 18

_a/n Probably 2-4 chapters to go. But not everything in the story is finished yet so nothing is set in stone. Pairings will most likely stay what they are. Next time I want to try to write something darker and with more action - It´s difficult to write good action scenes. This story became a bit different than I had thought, but then I didn´t really plan when I wrote the first chapter. _

_On with the story_

**Chapter 18**

**The Ark**

While the leaders, which by now mean Clarke, Lexa, her seconds and Bellamy, are planning for the upcoming assault there is a celebration of the union between the sky people and the grounders. There had been very little friction considering the two groups had been at war. Most realized that there had been mistakes made on both sides, and the grounders hatred of the mountain men far overshadowed their conflict with the sky people. The union was welcomed on both sides.

As a symbol of good faith Lexa had already sent a messenger to let the people in her village know that Murphy should be released. He would probably be back the next day.

Raven beams and silently thanks Clarke when she hears the good news. She is sure the blonde had something to do with it. She would thank her later, now it´s time to celebrate. She grabs a drink and heads into the mess hall.

**The next day**

They now have plan, Clarke knows it´s not perfect, but it is their best shot. She dreaded having to fight a group that included little kids. But their cruel leaders had sealed their fate with the killings and the experiments. She decides to run the plan by Raven, that girl had a good head on her.

**Raven´s workshop**

Raven is a little hung over but the night was totally worth it. There had even been strange, but exhilarating tribal dancing - and a lot of alcohol. These grounders knew have to party.

She is working to fix a faulty rifle when Clarke walks in. They had become closer in the last few days, Raven both liked Clarke and respected her strong leadership abilities.

"So, looking forward to Murphy coming back today?" Clarke sports a teasing smile. "I saw you two getting cosy on the trip to Lexa´s village. At one time I would have called you crazy, now I´m not so sure"

"Let´s just say that he grows on you" Raven laughs back. "And he is an excellent kisser, so there´s that"

Clarke is happy for her. If Raven felt for Murphy what she has started to do for Bellamy, it sure felt good. Clarke wondered if Raven knew about Murphy´s past. She decided it should be his story to tell. Clarke relayed the plan they had agreed on and she was pleased that the clever mechanic came up with a couple of ideas for improvement. Clarke was glad that she ran it by her.

Now she wanted to see Bellamy.

**The Ark **

Murphy stumbles back into camp later that day, looking like his old beat up self, supported by one of the grounders. It turns out Lexa´s messenger had managed to get there just in time.

He had been on the floor, dazed, Tristan about to give him the final stab with the sword. Before he could get that far though the oldest man in the village had walked in. He had been intending to let Murphy know that he was free and could return to his people. This man had earned the respect of all the villagers, including Tristan. He didn´t hesitate when he saw what was about to happen.

He just dragged Tristan, who surprisingly enough followed without protesting, out of the tent while saying in a steady, authoritarian voice. "You were to leave that boy alone". And with that Tristan was gone. Murphy hadn´t believed his lucky escape. That had been close! He had just laid there on the ground, for how long he couldn´t remember. One of the older grounder women had patched him up best she could, their real healer was at the Ark. Then he had made his somewhat painful way back to ark.

Before he has the chance to look for Raven Clarke is there. She gives him a hug and drags him away to the infirmary for a check-up. "It almost feels like home in here" Murphy smirks while gesturing to the room filled with medical equipment. And with that Clarke thinks he is probably in OK shape.

She examines him anyway, it´s almost an old habit. He´s not badly hurt, just beat up. His body is full of scars and welts, and Clarke sees that some are old, much older than since they landed on earth. She decides to probe him to see if he wants to open up about his past on the Ark.

"Where did you get all these old scars Murphy, did you hurt yourself a lot when you where younger?"

She can feel him stiffen under her fingers

"I don´t want to talk about it, so leave it" The friendly tone from before is gone. Clarke finishes with a couple of stiches to his lip and leaves him alone to rest.

Raven sees Clarke leave and goes in when she is out of sight. "Hey" she stands in the doorway, "What happened to you?"

Murphy smiles. Finally!

"Tristan happened".

"Oh, that guy from the grounder village. You ok? "

"Yeah, I´ve had a lot worse". Well that is the honest truth Raven thinks.

She sits down on the bed. He doesn´t know what to say so he pulls her down for a kiss. They don´t get up for a while.

When Abby needs the room for a patient with appendicitis Raven and Murphy decide to head out to the mess hall where a small gathering of grounders and sky people were chatting amiably, sharing some drinks. Murphy feels elated for once and not really following doctor's orders he soon finds himself in the midst of a crowd, glass raised, laughing. He looks drunk, but happy, Raven thinks.

Suddenly Monroe comes in from the outside. She just finished training with some of the grounders. As she takes a drink she notices Murphy and glares at him, "Oh, you´re back again" she says sourly. Murphy suddenly makes a decision,

Maybe it is because he is drunk and feels good that he suddenly is not afraid to openly acknowledge their connection. He looks seriously at Monroe and starts to speak.

"Listen, I want to tell you something. I know you recognize me. I know I was cruel to you. I did what I had to survive – not that that is an excuse. I wanted to teach you what I knew and I did it in the only way I knew how. I´m not proud of the boy I was, forcing you to do those fights, and training you like that. My excuse is that that was I wanted you to survive, like I did. I know this is much to ask, but I was a bastard" He pauses

"I… I am more sorry than you can ever know. Can you forgive me?" Murphy almost whispers that last part. He doesn´t feel drunk anymore.

Monroe is difficult to read. "Maybe" she says and storms off.

Everyone stares at Murphy. They all had heard about the pits.

Raven gives Murphy a warm look. He looks grimly back and turns to walk away. "I´m sorry", he mouths. "I have to go". He feels a sudden need to get away from all these people.

And with that he leaves the room. He makes sure to bring a bottle of moonshine.


	19. Chapter 19

**Chapter 19**

Raven decides it´s best to leave him alone and ventures off in the direction Monroe went. She sees her outside by one of the barrel fires that light up the compound.

"Hi Monroe, are you all right? That was some speech back there. I didn´t know you two knew each other?"

"Yeah, we do, or we did"

"You don´t have to say anything else but I´m worried about you. Now I understand why you are our best fighter. I´m sure you could beat Murphy easily if you tried" Raven smiles at the younger girl who snorts at Raven words.

"I could beat him before I was 11"

"If you want to talk I promise I am a good listener" She must admit that she mostly wants to know more about Murphy´s past because he sure wasn´t sharing. But she cares about Monroe, and wants genuinely to help so she does not want to pressure the younger woman. It turns out she doesn´t have to.

Monroe explains about her recruitment

-slash-kidnapping, Murphy training her, the daily struggle to survive and the brutal fights. It was all a lot worse than Raven could have imagined.

"He was so mean to me, but he taught me how to fight" Monroe sounded hesitant. "I have been hanging on to this hatred of him and the pits for so long it has almost become part of me. It´s not like I don´t understand why he did it. He wanted us both to survive, I realise that. Maybe without him I would be dead now. But back then then I wanted to be" She starts to cry, tears are flowing, and she doesn't stop.

"I want to feel part something that is not rotten and since the grounders have arrived here it almost feels like that can happen" Raven has a feeling that this is the first time Monroe has cried in a long time, she hugs her warmly and strokes her on the back. "Sure, honey, I can feel that too".

They stand together for a while just looking at the flames. As Raven gets around to leaving Monroe speaks again.

"Tell Murphy that he is forgiven, but don´t expect us to be friends"

She leaves and can´t wait to tell Murphy that bit of news. She also wants to hear his side of the story. She thought her own upbringing was tough. This put things in perspective.

She finds him on the sofa in her workshop dead to the world and smelling like a brewery. How clever was it to get dead drunk on top of a concussion? she thought. He was breathing soundly, even snoring so she wasn´t to worried. She gets undressed and into the extra bed she keeps at the back of her workshop and promptly falls asleep. She would deal with him tomorrow.

She wakes up to a groggy-looking Murphy getting into her bed. She laughs but lets him. "How can you even move today if you finished that bottle", she points to the empty bottle on the table.

"I´ve had a lot of practice" he says and kisses her, hang-over-breath and all. She doesn´t mind, she is sure her breath is not much better. Best to get the Monroe business out of the way before this goes further.

"I spoke to Monroe yesterday, she told me everything" Murphy is about to cut her off when she puts a hand on his mouth "No, let me finish. Yes, you probably treated her badly, but she seems to know deep down that you did the best you could so you both would survive. And, by the way, she told me she forgives you"

Although he hasn´t really forgiven him self it feels extremely good to hear that someone else has. He kisses Raven on the neck, he is so grateful. Now that she knew everything it was easier let those feelings he had been having run loose. "Thanks Raven" he whispers and moves his mouth to her lips. She is kissing him back. This time they are not stopping.

**The next day, day before planned attack on Mount Weather**

Lincoln and Octavia are both busy with their own groups of recruits, teaching them hand-to-hand combat. It was strange being back here since their little private adventure in no-mans-land. Octavia wanted to go back once the dust had settled. _If they both survived_

She had been feeling a bit sick to the stomach these last few days, but she had kept it quiet. Even from Lincoln. She did not want him or anyone else to worry. She could do her job just fine. She just had to throw up occasionally. No problem.

She looks at the warriors training around her. The sky people had been decked out in grounder clothes and war paint; they looked fierce. The sky-grounder army was as ready as it ever would be! She looks over at Clarke, who sees and nods back. The two of them had come a long way since that day running back to the drop ship looking for Bellamy. They had all come far since then. Hell, even Murphy was part of the group now.

Bellamy and Clarke stand outside the ark main entrance with Lexa and her lieutenants. The watch the last preparations with some unease. The warriors might be prepared but what would the mountain throw their way?

Tomorrow would tell.


	20. Chapter 20

a/n. Shortest chapter ever, but at least one more to go

**Chapter 20**

The group leaves at dawn while the weather is appalling. It is pouring down - but they all know that it means - advantage, them! Better to attack in foggy conditions with bad visibility.

After a slow trek - _the weapons are heavy_ – they arrive at the forest´s edge by Mount Weather. According to plan they split up into a larger and a smaller team. The largest group gets in position at the main entrance while Bellamy and his team plan to enter through one of the ventilation shafts without any mountain men noticing.

They just need Raven with her computer skills to silence the alarm. And open the door. Piece of cake…

Raven is well aware of the difficulty and she feels the pressure. That last time they tried this she had come up short. But with Wicks´ help she has a new and improved code. Hopefully that would do the trick.

**Mount Weather main entrance.**

Clarke and Lexa want to draw as many of the fighting mountain men as possible to the main door. Since their little visit to the mountain Clarke knows that most of them are civilians and not trained, or even willing to fight – so hopefully there were not that many to beat as Lexa seemed to think.

Everything is quiet. No one has shown themselves yet. Lexa knows for a fact that their attack would be a surprise. Since the deal these arrogant mountain bastards thought they were invincible.

The plan is to force the door ajar by using a small bomb. The mountain people are not expecting that kind of firepower, and it would allow for an attack from the inside.

Lexa gives the signal to set off the blast. The bomb has already been placed in position by a brave grounder.

The sounds of the bomb carries several miles. She knows phase two of the plan is in action.

The smaller group sneak in via the newly opened ventilation shaft just moments after the bomb goes off. Bellamy goes first. Monroe, Lincoln and Murphy follow soon after. Raven has done it - there is no alarm and she opened the lock on the first try. Murphy gives her a kiss before he heads into the tunnels. "Wish us luck", he says and then they are all gone

Octavia and Raven are left with a map and a walkie-talkie. This was out of their hands now


	21. Chapter 21

_**Chapter 21**_

**Inside Mount Weather. **

The little group has made it to where they had to split up. It seems like all the guards were busy with Clarke and Lexa´s attack on the main door. They could hear the sounds of gunfire coming from that direction.

"Good luck" Bellamy says to the two not coming with him. He was glad that Monroe had let up on the hatred for her former foe. They needed to work as a team.

"You too" Murphy nods to the others and the two small groups head off.

Murphy hadn´t had a chance to get Monroe alone yet, and he sure this was not the time or the place to say anything. But as they walked down the corridor it was all so quiet - _where were all the people_? – He decided to go for it.

"Listen Monroe", he touched her shoulder to made her stop, "just hold on for a second"

"Hey, we don't´ have time for a chat at this exact moment you know", Her answer is quick but not unfriendly.

"I agree, I just have something to say very quickly," he continues before Monroe can protest."

"Raven told me you had a chat, and I want to say that I really appreciate what you said to her-That´s it". Murphy didn´t want to elaborate. Both because of the situation they were in but also that he just doesn't want to drag any of that stuff up again. Monroe had been through enough because of him. She doesn´t have time to reply as they hear the faint sound of two people talking in the distance.

Whoever it is seems to be walking in their direction.

"Hurry, we can hide under there", Monroe points to a large tarp covering some barrels towards the sidewall of the corridor. They crouch down under it just in time.

"….plans to do several procedures right now, so we need to prep more. That man really has no scruples", Murphy can hear one of them say as they pass. His heart sinks - they were talking about their friends. She must mean the bone marrow procedure. Abby had explained that it was a very complex procedure if you wanted the subject to live. Murphy wasn´t sure anyone here would care about that detail, especially if they already were under attack.

"Change of plans. They have moved some of them, we need to follow these two idiots", he whispers.

They quietly follow the two mountain people in medical scrubs.

It´s not easy to hear their conversation from behind, but they pick up a snippet about two procedures already done and the kids were goners. Shit, Murphy thinks, would they be there in time? Honestly he was mostly worried if any of the two procedures had been Jasper or Monty.

* * *

Bellamy and Lincoln have not met anyone on their way to the storage room with all the cages. Lincoln carries the two bolt cutters while Bellamy has the gun had managed to copy the key card they had used last time, so Murphy had the other one. Hopefully it still worked.

* * *

Murphy and Monroe follow the two people in scrubs to a room very close to where Maya had told them their friends were being kept. Monroe wondered where she was and if she was safe. She really had come through.

Through the small mesh window in the door they can see that the room is some sort of medical facility and that there is an operation in progress. Who is that on that table, Murphy can´t tell. Panicked he looks around and sees a cupboard filled with used scrubs and he grabs one. "I´ll go in there, you wait here". The scrubs are disgusting but he gets them on and enters the room.

He sees what he thinks is John Cage being prepped for a procedure while the person on the other bed gives out a dazed moan. He knows that moan!

"Jasper!"

Murphy just acts on instinct when he realizes what is about to happen. He manages to shoot one the guards (who seemed surprised to be shot by one of the doctors) before he then pulls two doctors off Jasper´s bed. He can see the relief in Jasper´s eyes. The relief is it is short lived though as Cage quickly picks up the guards gun and shouts to "LEAVE THAT BOY ALONE, HE IS MINE" as he fires at Murphy.

Seconds after the first gunshot Monroe is there, and she just has time to see Murphy go down, and Cage with the gun before she reacts. She kicks the gun out of his hand and attacks with her whole body. He is a surprisingly good fighter, she wasn´t expecting that. Cage gets in a good kick to her shin and she tumbles.

She uses one of the moves Murphy taught her. From her prone position she gets up on her hands, raising her legs she uses them to wrap them round his head, flip her feet to promptly twist his neck. Just before the room of stunned doctors and a bleeding, but conscious Murphy hears the loud crack of a broken neck, there is another gunshot. Cage has somehow managed to get hold of the gun again and gets a shot off. Both he and Monroe sink down to the floor while the remaining medical staff take the opportunity to get out of there.

After all that noise the room feels deadly quiet. Murphy knows that he is in bad shape, but he needs to check on Monroe. He can feel a steady stream of blood pouring out of his shoulder but with all the adrenaline he doesn´t feel much pain.

"Murphy to Bellamy, over" He waits a second, tries again and then hears the crackling voice answer.

"_Bellamy here, what´s up?"_

"We ran into some trouble. Cage was about to operate on Jasper, there was a fight"

"_Status?"_

"Cage is dead, Monroe is shot. Jasper is alive", his voice falters a bit "I was shot too, and I´m not sure if can get the rest of our people out on my own"

The line becomes quiet for a few seconds.

_"__Let me get Raven to check the conditions on the outside. Maybe we can send more people in. If not I will get you myself. Do you think anyone heard or noticed?"_

"Yeah, a bunch of doctors. But they didn't seem so friendly with Cage so I don´t know"

"_Get Monroe and Jasper out of that room in case they come back, but keep the walkie talkie on so we can find you, and then we can find the others. We are almost finished here_"

"OK" It felt good that someone else took charge. He hopes he has the strength to hide the three of them.

He checks on Monroe who is unconscious - _he had seen her hurt many times before, being passed out wasn´t necessarily a problem_ \- but what worried him was the breathing. Could the bullet have punctured a lung?

She basically saved his life!

He checks the corridor and tries the key card on a room about 20 meters down. Thankfully it is empty. First he drags Jasper - who seems just to be sedated, not hurt - then Monroe into the bare room. He is starting the feel the shoulder now, a throbbing sensation and the familiar feeling of nausea that comes with extreme pain. But Monroe is worse off than him, he just knows it. He had taken some bandages and disinfectant from the other room and did his best for Monroe and then himself. _"Maybe Jasper will wake soon",_ is his last thought before passing out.


	22. Chapter 22

**Chapter 22**

**Mount Weather**

Jasper wakes up groggily – _had he seen Murphy?_ No, that couldn´t be right.

He had been taken out of the large comfortable room with bunks that the group from the hundred juveniles were kept in, _the thirty-six that were left of them._ Jasper shrugged. In the beginning all had seemed fine, or even amazing. The food had been great for starters. But they were never allowed to leave their room; the first red flag. Then Monty disappeared…

He had been taken from there to a room with two beds set up with medical equipment and been given an injection. It was all a bit blurry after that.

Now he seemed to be on the floor in a completely different room, this one almost bare. And he was not alone. Next to him there was Murphy – _he hadn´t dreamt it_ – lying almost over Monroe, both of them completely still and covered in blood.

Jasper couldn´t believe his eyes! The two of them! If Monty was there it would be a reunion.

The thought of Monty did not bring happy thoughts.

But what were the odds that those two would be here together? He knew very well what Monroe´s feelings towards Murphy amounted to, and he also knew that she had hoped he didn´t recognise her after the first landing on earth. He had honestly thought the whole thing had passed. While these thoughts were going through his mind he looked them over. Murphy seemed the best off. He had what looked like a gunshot wound on his shoulder - he could try to wake him up. What worried Jasper was Monroe´s erratic breathing. It was accompanied by a terrifying gurgling sound.

* * *

Bellamy and Lincoln finished releasing all the grounders from the cages. Two guards with guns had entered at one point but the ever-expanding group of freed grounders quickly silenced them. Bellamy had thanked the gods - _and Raven_ – for the walkie-talkies. It means that he could tell her and Octavia about Murphy and Monroe´s situation without stopping liberating the grounders. They needed this grounder army to fight the mountain men from the inside. The plan was to get a group out to get more weapons while teaming up with the freed kids. With Murphy and Monroe immobilized – _hope they were OK_ \- he wasn´t sure how they were going to solve that one.

* * *

Raven and Octavia are going in themselves. Everybody else is occupied at the main entrance and Raven knows the layout of the place. Bellamy´s message had been short. There had been shootout and their friends were still locked up. Cage was dead, and Murphy, Monroe were holding up somewhere, both wounded. And Jasper was with them.

There was no time to waste!

Raven takes some supplies that might come in handy, they both take two guns and they message to Clarke that they are going in. She needs to send somebody else to guard that entrance and make sure they got the weapons inside in time for the attack.

Clarke is not happy with what she hears, but she knows that it is the best idea to have the two of them go in – _Bellamy will be pissed. _She sends four of the strongest warriors to the ventilation shaft entrance.

The shootout has been on and off. The hole in the main entrance door makes for a standoff. No one has lost or gained any ground. The mountain men are resilient.

* * *

After trying to put on more bandages - _it doesn´t really seem to help - _Jasper has finally managed to wake up Murphy. He decides to keep it fairly light, despite the situation. "Hey man, good to see you and all, but what are you two losers doing here?"

When he looks at Murphy´s expression he almost feels guilty at the flippant question.

Murphyn looks desperate and rushes his words. "You need to get the others, get Bellamy or Raven on the walkie-talkie, It´s in my jacket pocket" Murphy´s eyes are glazed but he sounds lucid enough and manages to sit up.

Jasper is confused but his gut tells him to just trust Murphy on this and to do as he says. He sees the device and grabs it.

Useless! It has no more battery. Jasper looks deflated at Murphy.

"We need to get our people out to join the attack. You can use my key" Murphy is clearly in pain and has to lie down as he gets the key card out of his pocket. "Get them out, find Bellamy, he is also here, most of the guards are busy at the main entrance. The plan is to attack them from the back together with the grounders. GO NOW!"

Jasper leaves and it is just the two former child gladiators left.

Murphy starts to panic when he understands Monroe is not breathing


	23. Chapter 23

I´ve changed some small stuff (mostly language, a little bit plot) in a few chapters. Sorry. don´t mean to be flaky, just small stuff. just having fun with this, but want to improve my language. Approaching the end. Would love feedback on the whole present tense/past tense issue. I am struggling...

**Chapter 23**

Bellamy, Lincoln and the freed grounders are about to head out. Raven and Octavia should have been in contact by now. Bellamy is worried and contacts Raven on the walkie-talkie again. No answer. He knows that they won´t have it on the whole time – _there were guards around_ – but they needed their friends´ manpower to be sure a win from the inside of the mountain. It was really difficult to know how many soldiers they had, or how much resistance the mountain would put up. After all, only a portion of the people that lived there were guards. Like Bellamy had found out during their brief visit, most were just ordinary people.

Bellamy could still hear the sounds from the battle by the front entrance. He hoped Clarke was ok, but mostly he was worried about Octavia. Answer dammit! He tried the connection again. He could hear only static.

* * *

Jasper hates to leave the two of them in that situation – _at least he has a mission now _\- five minutes later he is using the key card to open the steel doors to the room containing his friends. He is surprised there are no guards but who is he to complain. The remaining teenagers are huddling or hiding towards the back of the massive room

"Don´t worry guys, it´s me" Jasper motions to them to join him, and he hears sighs of relief coming from all around him. "We have a situation. Murphy and Monroe saved me from certain death just now, and they are part of a larger attack on the mountain men. They came to save us"

Everybody gathers around as he explains the events of the previous hour and that they need to contact Raven or Bellamy to find out what is going on,

"Where is Monty?" a young girl asks.

"I don´t know" was Jaspers muted reply. "But let´s try to find the others before we are too late" he said as he opens to door they had been shut behind for weeks.

That is what he said. What he thought was. Let´s get revenge on these mountain bastards

* * *

Murphy had managed to get Monroe breathing again – _most former child fighters were excellent at first aid_ \- but time was not on their side. Apart from the distant sound of the gunfire from the entrance, it had been eerily quiet since Jasper had left. At least Clarke and Lexa seemed like they were holding their own.

He thought about his and Monroe´s current situation. Jasper had done a good job with the bandages. It still hurt like a bitch but at least his wound had stopped bleeding. Monroe´s condition was another story. She was dead to the world; his small nudges gave no response. She was still breathing though, her pulse sluggish but strong.

Hopefully Jasper would free the thirty-eight, -_ or the thirty-something, how many were left? _Then they could team up with Bellamy and the others, hit the mountain men from the inside, defeat them all and THEN Bob´s your uncle. He shrugged - piece of cake.

Who was he kidding? He couldn´t even stop being sarcastic in his thoughts! He looked at Monroe´s still form and filed it under coping mechanism. She probably didn´t have long.

He wondered if Raven was still outside with the others. He hoped so.

* * *

Jasper has taken the lead. He is in front of the thirty-plus strong group as they head out of their former prison. They had hatched somewhat of a plan just seconds before. Jasper had decided not to completely follow Murphy´s instructions. One small group was to go to get Murphy and Monroe out of the mountain to get medical attention on the Ark. Most of the former prisoners went to search for Bellamy and Raven.

Jasper was part of the large group as they hurried down one of the corridors, corridors that looked more like tunnels. He wanted to be the one to save his former child fighting comrades, but the teenagers had started to look up to him. It was his time to lead. And then they got lucky! Jasper saw a pair of walkie-talkies hanging next to one of entrances. Yes!

He quickly assembled that battery onto the device he got from Murphy, gets it going again and shouts into it. "Bellamy! Raven! Can you hear me?"

* * *

Raven and Octavia have been on the move for a few minutes. Raven had felt a panic that she didn´t expect when Bellamy conveyed the information about Jasper, Murphy and Monroe. Murphy had gotten under her skin - that was for sure. No time to ponder about that, she motions to Octavia to turn to continue down the corridor where Bellamy had thought Murphy and Monroe were holding up.

Not even Octavia hear the guards coming up behind them.


	24. Chapter 24

**Chapter 24**

Bellamy, Lincoln and the large group of grounders are hiding to their best ability in the storage room while waiting for the small group they sent to the ventilation shaft entrance to pick up more weapons. All the grounders are out of the cages and Lincoln has explained the plan to attack the mountain men together with the sky people. Some make a point of being sceptical but the gist is basically the same as when Clarke made the deal with Lexa. Their hatred for the mountain men is way greater than any hatred for the group from the sky. Some of them had never even heard of the sky people. They were already taken into the mountain´s custody when the drop ship arrived. Some had been there months.

Since there had been total radio silence from both Murphy and Octavia, Bellamy was worried that the attack would have to be without the help of their friends. The grounders were mentally more than ready to fight but weeks of captivity made them sluggish and physically weak. An attack from the inside might still go their way but it would be good to have 30 plus more fighters.

Bellamy has kept the walkie-talkie on the whole time – _just in case_ – all the guards seemed to have abandoned their posts anyway. The sudden sound of a familiar voice is a huge relief; he was getting really worried.

_"__Bellamy! Raven! Can you hear me? _

Jasper´s voice! "Yes, Jasper, this is Bellamy, over"

Lincoln and some of the grounders were also listening. They all knew that they needed these reinforcements. Lincoln could see the group with the additional weapons were finally back and had already proceeded with handing out guns, spears and swords to all the former captives.

_"__We´re on our way over to you, we need directions" _Jasper replies.

_"_We are in a large room closer to the main entrance" Bellamy explains the route in detail. And while he just doesn´t want to ask this next question he needs to know. Now.

"Do you have everybody with you, is Octavia there? She and Raven were going after Murphy and Monroe!" Bellamy sounds hopeful. He had to focus on the mission dammit but he needed to know that his sister was OK.

"Octavia?" Jasper sounds confused and Bellamy´s heart sinks. "No, I haven´t seen her. We sent some people to help Murphy and Monroe outside, the rest are with me to fight with you guys. Never saw Raven either"

Bellamy´s face has a small trace of the panic he feels as he tries the radio again.

"BELLAMY TO OCTAVIA. BELLAMY TO RAVEN" He almost shouts into the radio. Lincoln hushes him while looking just as worried.

They hear only static.

* * *

Monroe is barely breathing but awake. There is a horrifying gurgling sound with each breath she takes and Murphy just knows her lungs are slowly filling up with blood. He considers forcing himself out of there to get help, but he doesn´t want to leave her alone. And it´s not like he could easily get help from somewhere either. He doesn´t really know what to say to her, but the graveness of the situation has kept him talking to keep her awake. Her head is in Murphy´s lap while his hand is unsuccessfully trying to stop the still flowing blood seeping thought her bandaged wound.

He hopes Jasper has at least made it to the others so they can assist Bellamy in the attack.

"Am I dying now?"

Monroe speaks for the first time in ages and it quickly jars him back to the here and now. Her breathing is so shallow now she almost can´t get the words out. He doesn´t know what to say to that – _what do you say do that?_ He has seen her injured many times before from the pit fights but never like this. As he looks into Monroe´s glazed eyes he can´t help but nod in affirmation to her question– _he just couldn't bring himself to lie_. He doesn´t say anything though just kisses her cheek while he squeezes her hand. Her eyes are closed now but he feels her hand softly react to his touch. And then she stops breathing for good.

* * *

Octavia comes to with a slow yawn. _What happened?_ Last thing she remembers is walking down one of the corridors with Raven, on their way to get Murphy and Monroe out of there. She touches a sore area on her neck and can feel a small bruise like it is from a needle. Had she been drugged? She sure felt drowsy enough. How long had she been out? What about the attack?

She looks around the room – _more like prison cell_ \- and immediately spots a still Raven. She looks her over. She seems unhurt, just sleeping. There are no signs of any guards and the door is locked.

_a/n _

_I know there are some logical, let´s call them issues, in this story. Like how come the mountain men cannot find all these people who are roaming around inside their own home…and how the grounders forgave the sky folks VERY easily for that s1 massacre. Not even I am buying that, and I am writing the story ;) _

_Nothing major-major, but several little things like that just don´t add up. This happens when I don´t plot properly and then I have suddenly written too much and can´t change it without changing almost everything. Sorry about this, my focus is mainly to have fun with the characters and practice my writing skills. Next time I can practice plotting also – not too mention better character development…._

_But I am still enjoying it so there might be more stories coming up. This one is approaching the end.  
_


	25. Chapter 25

**Chapter 25**

The small group from "the 38" that had gone to get Murphy and Monroe had run into trouble. It was only three of them. Fox, Craig and Felix. Felix was the first to go, his head span back, a small whole from a bullet appearing on his forehead, and he was down on the floor in a second. The other two, stunned at what had happened in front of them barely had time to react before the shots hit them in the same way

* * *

Murphy hears the noise of gunshots; Monroe´s head is still in his lap. He hasn´t moved and his whole body is reeling from what had just happened. The noise is a harsh welcome to reality. He is not staying here!

Ignoring his aching body – _the shoulder is almost numb with pain, or is it the adrenaline _– Murphy slowly moves Monroe´s head to the floor. He looks at her still face feeling is eyes water up. Not wanting to succumb to the tears he slowly and painfully gets up and then gives Monroe´s still body a nod of respect.

Get a grip! What would she want him to do; he forces himself to think. Their history was gritty, but here, in this new, but old, world, it had started to change. He wasn´t about to forgive him self anytime soon but the fact was that she had meant more to him than he wanted to admit.

The room seems to be unguarded so he uses brute force to open the door. Maybe using his body wasn´t such a clever move, his shoulder does not appreciate the effort. As he runs down the hall the pain is so bad that he has to crouch down to get his breath.

He needs to find Jasper or Bellamy. Or Raven.

He is enough out of sight for the two guards passing not to see him. All his instincts tell him to follow them. It was as good a plan as any.

* * *

Raven and Octavia had been alternating between banging the door and shouting while trying to locate any means out of the cell they were currently occupying. There still seemed to be no one outside the door, or at least there was no reply. It wasn´t too long before the two of them had to come to the conclusion that they were stuck there. It was a harrowing feeling.

Raven was worried about the whole operation and she had to admit was worried about Murphy. Bellamy had said that he was wounded. _Monroe too, her thoughts added._ After their talk back at the Ark she had felt closer to the girl. She couldn´t really understand what she had been through, sure, but she could sure empathize. And she did.

Octavia gets up to to try the door one more time when they both hear the bip-bip sound of a key card being used and the door opens. They both react on instinct; get back, fists up, ready to take the mountain men on.

Raven gasps when she sees that the person entering is not the enemy, but a stumbling Murphy, holding up a key card. She runs to him and catches him just as he is about to keel over. His bloody shoulder is a dead giveaway as to why.

As he more or less falls into the room Octavia takes action. "Murphy, you godsend! Any more guards outside?"

"No, I killed them" He is on the floor.

Injured and without a weapon, Raven thinks, but then she remembers his background. He is more than capable.

Murphy has stared at her since he entered the room.

Octavia is all game face. Raven can suddenly see the grounder in her.

"OK, guys, I need to join Lincoln and Bellamy. I´ll help you most of the way, but you need to manage the last bit on your own"

"I´ll manage" Murphy does not sound convinced at his own statement,

Raven helps him up. "Don´t think I heard you. WE will manage you mean"

"What are you doing here, you were supposed to be at the entrance, keeping watch"

"Well, someone had to save your ass"

"Who saved who here exactly"

Octavia can see the banter for what it is and can´t help but smile at that last comment. After all, now it is she and Raven semi-carrying Murphy out the door. But she doesn´t point that out, there is no time to waste.

* * *

Clarke has been in contact with Bellamy throughout the fight. She knows that the final attack is imminent. She looks over at Lexa and nods.

"Soon"

Lexa nods back. There has been a standstill between the two fighting fractions for the last hour. A few shots here and there, but no one has made a real move

The fact that the mountain men have to wear those suits, it makes them extra vulnerable. But the smallish crack that Ravens bomb had blown open in the door was not large enough to for their army to fight their way through – _not that that was the plan anyway -_ so hence the standoff.

Octavia has just said goodbye to Raven and Murphy where they planned. She gathered they were close enough to the ventilation shaft to make it out that way. Murphy had actually seemed to perk up after he met Raven. Good for him! She mentally crossed her fingers.

She had studied the Mount Weather maps for days - _she knew the layout by heart_ \- so she headed in the direction of the main entrance.

She is almost there when she spots two people walking quickly in her direction; a woman in a doctors coat and a dark-haired man of about the same age. Thank the stars for good reflexes. Octavia manages to duck before they spot her. She is however in full earshot.

"-if we do that the gas will also kill the guards fighting at the entrance, we need them" She can hear the woman speak

"It´s them or us" That is the man´s voice. "It´s a sacrifice we need to make"

This new information is terrifying. This was not part of any plan. She needs to act fast. She has seen herself what the acid fog does. Clarke is outside the gates! Lexa! Hundreds of people!


	26. Chapter 26

**Chapter 26.**

Octavia acts quickly, better to attack them before they get to whatever control room they are heading too. That acid fog didn´t bear to think about. It said a lot about these guys mentality that they are willing to sacrifice their own people so easily.

While she still has the element of surprise she moves forward and pushes one of them roughly into the other. The two of them stumble and before they have time to react further she has served the male a brutal kick to the face – all the training was paying off - and he falls down to the floor in a bloody heap.

The woman had gotten her bearings and had taken out out a gun. She points it straight at Octavia.

"I don´t want to kill you know, you have something valuable I want. Behave and I will let you live."

Annoyingly the man she had kicked was getting up. He glared at her.

Octavia was disgusted at how badly she had handled the situation, and how fucked she was. How fucked they were! No one had a chance against the acid fog.

* * *

Jasper´s group has unbelievably enough made it all the way to Bellamy, Lincoln and the others without being noticed. They divide into smaller groups, designate leaders for each team and Bellamy, Lincoln, Clarke and Lexa make the final adjustments to the plan of attack over the radio. The countdown has started. The plan is simple.

They would spread out – the largest group were to attack the mountain men fighting at the entrance. That would be the main battle line. They expected most of the soldiers or guards to be where the actual fight was. No one seemed to have discovered the entrance at he ventilation shaft.

Other smaller groups would search the entire mountain, round up all they come across, fighter and non-fighters alike. Jasper knows very well that not all the mountain´s inhabitants have ill intentions towards grounders or other newcomers. Hopefully that will tip the fight in their favour. Jasper would head the small team tasked with searching the lower levels. Anyone who was not fighting back would be kept under guard in a large room on level five. Anyone fighting back though was to be shot on sight.

He wondered if Craig and his group had gotten Murphy and Monroe out. Before the evening was over he would know… He was even more desperate to find out what had happened to Monty. Actually his whole body pounded with anxiety when he thought of his friends. It was almost funny - almost - how that dysfunctional group from so many years ago were again entangled in the same fucking fight. They had survived so much shit together. This couldn´t be the end. It just couldn´t!

* * *

Clarke has passed on to Lexa that the attack from Bellamy and Lincolns group is imminent. Their best shooters are intensifying the frequency to the keep the mountain men soldiers occupied. Their main body of warriors are ready to enter the mountain as soon as the inside team gets the doors open. The warriors are ready. Here and now there is no more sky person vs grounder. They had become one team with one goal!

They get the final message from Bellamy over the radio; the attack has started.

Lexa and Clarke share a look. They give the signal for the first team to move forward-

* * *

Raven and Murphy have made it just a few hundred meters from the ventilation shaft entrance when they are caught up by a panicked Maya. What was she doing there? She is clearly exhausted from running but speaks while she tries to catch her breath.

"She will kill them!" OK. Now the mountain girl had both their attention. She had already proved herself when she told tem – told Monroe - about what was going on at the mountain. Raven feels pangs when she thought about her adorable flirting with Monroe. Murphy had filled her in on what had happened there. She decided not to say anything, the taking of the mountain had to have priority. Muprhy wouldn´t say anything, he didn´t have a clue about that connection..

Raven takes the girl's hands; she guided her over to a more hidden area, and makes her sit down. Still holding Maya´s hands she tells her to breathe deeply and to explain to her who will kill who exactly.

"I overheard Doctor Tsang talking to Cage, the presidents son remember, about your attack. They will kill Clarke and everybody else!"

They were heading to the part of the mountain where all the control rooms were. "I have known about Tsang being involved in the kidnappings and bone marrow extracts but now she plans to just let out the fog. Anyone by the main entrance, inside and outside will be killed!"

The words come out frantically. Raven decides that she is clearly telling the truth and feels panic set in. She looks at Murphy who has kept his distance and sits a few meters away with his eyes closed. He could sense that the girl, Maya, is uneasy around him. And honestly, he needed to sit down anyway. The physical toll of the escape and the raw feelings from thinking about Monroe´s last minutes had him exhausted. This new information from Maya makes him pay attention though.

"That is not all, She has Octavia with her".

He is impressed by Maya´s bravery. Murphy knew they had to do something, but he is not in good shape. He is nauseous and struggles to keep alert, let alone stand up on his own, feeling the familiar tug of unconsciousness. He´s lost too much blood. He fights back and asks the very frightened girl.

"Do you know where they are now?"

Maya jumped, she had forgotten about him.

"Yes"

"Take Raven to show you where - and stop her".

Raven loved that he had so much confidence in her, but wished it was both of them going. It is not that she couldn´t handle herself, but honestly, she also wanted to keep an eye on him. Every time they had been apart lately he would end up nearly dead or at least with a very serious injury. Now that she felt like they had moved their relationship towards something else, she was terrified that the ugly statistic would just continue.

His words to them are surprisingly clear considering the colour of his face and the amount of blood staining his shirt. Raven knows that she has to leave him there and it breaks her heart. But they have no time to waste.

Maya looks away as Raven leans in and gives Murphy a quick kiss on the lips before the two girls head down the corridor.


	27. Chapter 27

a/n

_So…Somewhat of a long break there, sorry about that. But I want the story to be complete. Suddenly I understand why there are so many unfinished works of fan fiction, I didn't want there to be one more. There might be some plot elements that don´t make sense now but I´ve tried to keep it consistent. I think my own plot is so boring..I think that is why I lost the inspiration. Note to self for next time; make a plot outline first ;)  
_

A litte short, probably 2 more chapters to go...

Chapter 27

By the main entrance the standoff between the two groups is still in effect, Clarke and Lexa are waiting for the signal from Bellamy´s group so for now the grounder-sky-army are just keeping the mountain guards occupied by firing the occasional shot and saving ammo. While Lexa seems unfazed at the delay and was being her usual calm self, Clarke knows that she is anxious beneath her calm exterior. She tries to push away the feeling that the team on the inside would not make it in time.

"We should have heard from them by now?" Clarke just couldn´t help to voice her worry, "And why aren´t the mountain guards more aggressive, what are they waiting for?"

Lexa looked at her carefully, Clarke could almost see her thinking, and waited for an answer.

"You raise a good point, leader of the Sky people, but there is little we can do at this point, we just have to trust that your boyfriend gets the job done". Clarke jumps at the term but decides not to comment – she knows very well that things were slowly starting to change in her relationship with Bellamy, and so obviously does Lexa.

* * *

Raven glances a last time at Murphy´s unconscious form before she and Maya dart down the hall towards the control rooms.

"Take this! I have never used a gun before" Maya shoves a small handgun towards her as they run down the dark corridor. Amazingly they aren´t met by any guards on the way so they don´t stop before they come to a halt outside a closed door two levels further down.

"This is the control room" Maya gestures to the door, "They should be in there"

"They? She is not alone?" Raven asks with a disappointed frown.

"Nope, she seldom is. How do you want to do it?" Maya has time to ask but before she gets an answer Raven has yanked open the door, located Dr Tsing standing by a large panel of switches and buttons and fires off a shot before the anyone else in the room have time to react. The white-clad woman goes down in a heap, shot straight in the forehead. Raven sends a silent thanks to Bellamy who had been adamant that all the delinquents had to have weapons training. Maya enters right behind her, wearily watching the reaction of the other people in the room. Raven has time to point the gun towards them, and strangely enough they are not armed. They seem almost relieved.

"Don't shoot, don´t shoot" says the woman who seemed to be the superior in the group while she raised her hands in a passive gesture.

"Did she send off the fog?" Raven asks as she keeps the gun fixed in their direction.

"No, we were stalling her" the woman answers and she looks proud for a moment "Most people here are appalled at what Dr Tsing and Cage have been doing to you guys, we would rather stay in the mountain permanently "She looks at Raven with a thankful expression, and continues, Dr Tsing was a monster".

"We can join, you´re going to need all the help you can get", it was Maya who spoke up.

Raven lets herself be impressed by the girl. She had guts. Hopefully most other inhabitants in the mountain would feel the same way about Cage and Dr. Tsing, it could mean the difference between success and failure.

They have no time to loose now. She prays that Bellamy´s and Lincolns teams had managed to team up with the grounder prisoners, picked up the guns and that they were now in position to attack. One smaller team led by Lincoln would make sure Cage and his team of guards were immobilized while they secure all the civilian residents on one level. Bellamy's team would initiate the main attack with the aim of opening the doors for Clarke, Lexa and the full sky-grounder-army. Easy peasy.

Raven knows that the smart move would be to join Bellamy´s team but her mind went back to the state Murphy was in when they left him in that corridor. He could die in that corridor. The thought made her slightly queasy, she did not want to go there.

And where is Octavia?

She has a decision to make.


End file.
